From Density to Accessibility: RER’s and the Rise of the Freeway
Macro-Level Thinking
Originally, France had to think macro level: major government projects to improve ports, rebuild fallen cities, become a nuclear nation, and simply to establish itself as a world power took priority. The successful planning of Paris in the 60’s boiled down to solving a problem: how to “channel the unprecedented growth in population, employment and housing and transport demand of the 1960s and early 1970s” [14].Referenced historically as a key example of a networked city, Paris has been “a major center of consumption” since the 10th century [2]. With newfound economic prosperity in post-war France, the government moved to embrace an expanding technology: the automobile as a usable commodity for the masses, expanding “the French auto industry with state-owned Renault at its center; and the building of the first motorways between Paris and the provinces” [1]. With this increased focus on automobile transportation, Paris found itself once again working to be a networked city in the 20th century, and this newfound goal of interconnectivity and accessibility helped Paris progress towards a key tenet of modernism: planning for all. Renault (state-owned at the time) launched the Renault 4, “a small estate car which is aimed at the lower end of the market” in 1961 [3]. Supported by new road infrastructure and low-cost technology, the automobile became a commodity for the masses, increasing transportation and access within Paris and to jurisdictions near and far.
Macro-Level Thinking
Figure 2: Plan of RER. [17]
Freeways and Circles
In addition to the expansion of the public transit system, the Parisians did not forget their newfound love for the automobile and emphasized autoroute expansion more than any other component of the 1965 Regional Plan. The SDAURP created three classifications for roadways: 1. The Primary Network, which is equivalent to the US Interstate system, with no stops, 2. The Secondary Network which equates to state highways or state routes, with some stops but freeway speeds, 3. The Tertiary Network which equates to local roads, and was actually not expanded much but rather it was hoped that Tertiary roads would remain uncongested with the introduction improved Primary and Secondary Networks [4]. In addition to improved suburban automobile transit, the SDAURP also included immense plans to retrofit, expand, and improve the inner and outer ring system of Paris proper (Figure 3).
As is shown in Figure 3, the ring system of freeways, or Les Peripheriques, defines what is known today to be Paris proper. Berlin, London, and Moscow are all known for ring systems of transit, but Paris’ is perhaps best known, probably due to its history. In the late 1700’s, LeDoux ordered the “Wall of the Farmers-General” to be built, which facilitated the collection of a tax for imported goods into Paris known as the Octroi, and had a road surrounding its exterior. As part of Haussmann's revolution of Paris, it was almost completely torn down as Haussman was working to expand the boundaries of the great wheel of Paris and his Grand Boulevards were to be the spokes. See Haussmanization of Paris for more info.. In the 1950’s, urban planners set about rebuilding these left-over fragments into the massive freeway system they are today [5]. All of these bold plans sound expensive, and they were. The Institute estimated the SDAURP would cost 70 Billion Francs in roadway improvements and construction, and an additional 50 Billion Francs in public transit improvements over 30 years. Due to economic hard-times, the plan had to be revised and made more modest in 1976, but the main objective remained the same: connect Paris and prepare for the expected population in 2000 of 14 million (the actual population turned out to be just over 11 million) [6].
Speed and Distance
Paris then moved to take things a step further, turning the region into “an integrated network linked by highspeed public and private transport routes;...[so that] it would remain a unified market for labour, goods and services” [14]. In 1965, Paris formalized its regional plan with Schéma Directeur d'Aménagement et d'Urbanisme de la Région de Paris (SDAURP de 1965), which translates directly to “Master Plan of Planning and Urban Planning of the Paris Region,” and was the first Formal Regional Planning Document post World War II. This development came shortly after the opening of L’Institut d’aménagement et d’urbanisme de la region île-de-France, or the Institute of Planning and Development of the Paris Region (IAURP). Within this first plan, Paris formally focused on transportation: connecting Paris to its suburbs with public transportation using its Regional Express Network (RER), a new express train, and connecting suburbs to other suburbs, as well as interconnecting cities and Paris proper, with an adequate network of freeways, roads, and side streets designed to conquer the expected increase in traffic in the coming years (Figure 2). The RER was planned to “include an East-West line, two North-South lines and two tangential lines, one to the North and one to the South” [4]. As those original five lines remain today without changes or major additions (except frequency increases), the IAURP did an excellent job creating a system able to grow with the city. The RER is a component of the trio of Parisian public transit, working in tandem with the Metro, but providing longer-distance, faster service, and with the bus system to move the busy Paris population. An expanding Paris was now fortified with the ability to quickly traverse the city, something the Metro (which travelled at a whimsical 25 km/hr) and buses alone were unable to accomplish.
Figure 3: Les Peripherique [5]
Conclusions
Although these plans seem a bit mono-faceted, seeming to focus solely on transportation, the main concept was very forward thinking. Up until 1920, Paris’s population had continually increased, peaking in 1920 at 2.9 million, and then rapidly decreasing each year thereafter. Like any other developed city which hadn’t expanded its borders, Paris reached a capacity. Paris experienced both a “significant decline in household size, and a dramatic migration of residents to the suburbs between 1962 and 1975” [6]. Although much of Paris proper had fled to the suburbs, the Region of Paris as a whole experienced a time of extremely rapid economic development in the 1960’s and 1970’s. This was due not only to the end of the war, but mainly to successful expansion planning: To account for the influx of commuter workers and suburban residents that were anticipated to accompany an economic upturn, the planners who created the SDAURP were attempted to connect Paris to its outskirts, and therefore increase accessibility to Paris, and allow Paris to expand regionally, rather than just create more density. This expansion of usable and livable area for people of all classes due to increased transportation infrastructure was envisioned to help Paris avoid major slums, dangerously high density, and all the problems that accompany overpopulation. The plan may have seemed to be just trains and cars, but if we define modernism to be design for the masses, these trains and cars were one of the main driving forces towards modernism.
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