The National Council continues its push to improve the quality of life in Monaco with a proposal to make the whole of the Principality’s bus network free for an experimental period of two weeks.

The purpose of such a move would be to decrease the use of private vehicles which currently clog Monaco’s streets, especially during peak travel hours. The Council said on Thursday, February 20, that it has sent a letter to the Minister of State asking the Government to carry out a full-scale test, significant enough to draw “valid conclusions.”

The Council is calling for an extension of the traditional one day of free travel to mark European Mobility Week to a full two weeks in September on all of Monaco’s bus routes.

The letter, signed by Council President Stephane Valeri and the President of the Council’s Quality of Life Commission, Guillaume Rose, said: “This test carried out on the entire network, for all, without tickets and without constraints, should be accompanied by a large communication campaign, organised upstream and during the two weeks of its duration. It would thus constitute a concrete demonstration that the Monegasque authorities wish to develop soft mobility in the Principality, in accordance with the very strong ambitions of our Sovereign in terms of sustainable development.

“This test proposal, of a very short duration, limited to two weeks, would make it possible to take into consideration the concern raised by the Government and the Compagnie des Autobus de Monaco, of not being able to return to a paid system, after a free test for several months, which we continue to think would be more reliable. Because of this same very limited duration, the measure would, moreover, have a very low cost.”

ORIGINAL SOURCE: National Council PHOTO: Compagnie des Autobus de Monaco