Thursday, September 03, 2009
The collision that commonly takes place between the left and the right in politics has manifested itself in France where two local leaders have literally aimed their constituencies at one another. Tired of the commuter traffic that has plagued the D909 road, the conservative mayor of Levallois-Perret, Patrick Balkany, decreed that the roadway was now one-way—in the direction of neighboring Clichy-la-Garenne.
Gilles Catoire, the Socialist mayor of Clichy, objected to Balkany’s decision and in turn ordered the signs for D909 in his section of town to be one-way as well—but in the direction of Levallois. Thus, motorists found themselves headed for one another, causing gridlock and forcing local and national police to conduct traffic control. The French national government, sympathetic to the politics of Balkany, ordered Catoire to return his side of the roadway to two ways. Many French drivers, following a long tradition of defiance to authority, ignored both one-way signs and kept driving.
-Noel Brinkerhoff
Paris Mayoral Feud Blocks Street (BBC News)
French Towns on One-way Street to Head-on Collision (Agence France-Presse)
Levallois-Clichy: La Guerre des Sens Interdits (Libération)
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