Abstract This study is motivated by experiments on Tore Supra and WEST tokamaks where a deepening of the E × B velocity—governed radial electric field r —near edge observed when safety factor decreases in L-mode plasmas. Flux-driven global simulations ion temperature gradient turbulence recover qualitatively trend experiments, i.e. velocity increases decreasing factor. From these simulations, multiple clues point out role establishment even though turbulent intensity with The proposed mechanism to elucidate this phenomenon, backed up reduced model, that damping poloidal flow, governed neoclassical friction, more strongly than drive for , due <mml:math xmlns:mml=“http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" overflow=“scroll”> <mml:mo stretchy=“false”>(</mml:mo> mml:mir</mml:mi> mml:mo,</mml:mo> mml:miθ</mml:mi> stretchy=“false”>)</mml:mo> </mml:math> component Reynolds stress.