80 euros per month: this is the positive toll
Of course, it is not enough to stay at home to receive this money. You must first register for the anti-congestion program. Then, the metropolis will check if you are in the conditions, that is to say that you regularly make trips at rush hour on the A1 and A23 motorways. This verification phase is spread over several months and works with license plate recognition cameras. Finally, if you are one of the 5,000 people selected, you will be paid up to 2 euros per journey avoided, with a maximum of 80 euros per month, from September 2023 to June 2024.
For this, participants will have to actually change their habits. Shifting schedules, telecommuting, carpooling or using public transport are the accepted alternatives. There is therefore no question of simply modifying your itinerary: documents proving the change in behavior will be required.
Thus, rather than taxing the use of the car at peak times, we touch the wallet of motorists in another way: by filling it.
“The goal is to reduce car traffic by 6%“, explains Sébastien Leprêtre, mayor of La Madeleine and vice-president of the European Metropolis of Lille. “If we remove 750 vehicles between 7 and 9 a.m. and between 4:30 p.m. and 6:30 p.m., we will still have slowdowns, but no more traffic jams.“
