In order to unblock the centers of cities, choked by the traffic of too many automobiles, present urban policy tends to develop mass transportation. The large municipalities thus equip themselves with more and more vehicles of the tramway, trolleybus or subway type.
Among these, the fixed guideway tramways on tires are particularly advantageous for small to medium-sized cities. In fact, they can share the roadway with regular vehicles, requiring little infrastructure work, and can move about on relatively narrow streets. In addition, they have a much greater capacity then that of buses, they are rapid, and are not subjected to the hazards of city traffic.
They must, however, roll on specially designed paths, consisting of rolling tracks, a guide rail, for example centered, and the installation of electrical energy feed, signals and other items. Thus, their installation in an urban milieu, in any event, requires a certain amount of work.
In order to carry out this work, it is usually necessary to close off one or more streets for an extended period of time, the time to dig an adequate trench, divert the existing conduits and pipes, prepare the ground, pour the foundations, carry out surveys for each of the component elements of the lane, install and connect the different components, make the connections, fill in and lay out the areas adjacent to the components of the lane, resurface the roadway damaged by the work, lay out the crossings and the signals, etc. . . .
All this work obviously generates traffic, parking, supply and business access problems as well as noise, dust, etc., which result in significant inconvenience to the inhabitants, the business people, as well as for all the users wishing to use the routes blocked by the work.
It is therefore in the interest of everyone that the installation of the travel lane takes as little time as possible in order to reduce the inconvenience which it causes.