The plan “ providing each person with a disability with an accessible mobility solution” will be presented by the next interministerial committee on the Olympic and Paralympic Games (JOP), during the second quarter, according to information from the World.
The accessible Ile-de-France bus and RER network will not be enough to transport the 350,000 disabled visitors expected in the summer of 2024. “An exceptional transport offer will therefore have to be offered during the period of the Games”recalled the Minister of Sports, Amélie Oudéa-Castéra, at the beginning of December 2022, before the senators.
The device To help mobility – public transport service on demand for people with reduced mobility – will be simplified and cheaper (2 euros per ticket), specifies Ile-de-France Mobilités (IDFM). The goal : “Go from 730,000 races in 2019 to more than a million in 2024”announces Laurent Probst, director general of the transport authority.
Shuttles and taxis
IDFM will also set up during the JOP a system of adapted shuttles, “very flexible”, between the major Parisian stations and the Olympic sites, “close to the stadiums”. This system will have to transport at least 40% of the 4,000 wheelchair users who will use public transport every day (2,500 during the Paralympics).
To complete “the offer”, the government wants to increase the fleet of Parisian taxis adapted to wheelchairs from 200 to 1,000 vehicles in 2024 (bonus of 40% of the purchase price). Local authorities and transport operators are also working around stations, to connect ” seamless “ leaving the trains with the IDFM shuttle system or accessible taxis, the only vehicles authorized to use the Olympic routes, with those transporting accredited persons.
Finally, since a large number of spectators with disabilities will come with their own cars, parking and drop-off areas are planned as close as possible to the competition sites. It remains to be seen whether there will be enough of them.