La Rochelle has a commercial harbour and boasts Europe’s largest marina for pleasure boats. With a significant number of small and medium-sized enterprises, La Rochelle’s economic dynamism is a strong driver for change in a city that promotes quality of life, sustainable transportation and urban ecology.
Among the city’s pioneering transport policies were the introduction of its first city-centre pedestrian precinct in 1973, its first car-free day in 1997, and the launch of its bicycle loan scheme in 1976.
Participation in the CIVITAS SUCCESS project can be seen as part of the local authority’s environmental strategy to improve the quality of life of the city’s inhabitants by improving existing public transport solutions, organising multimodality, and giving greater coherence and visibility to all public transport services.