“We don’t tell people to abandon their car…”, underlines André Broto

Author of the book 40 preconceived ideas about transport… and why they prevent us from moving forward (ed. Eyrolles – 2024), the road mobility expert proposes to rethink transport policy in France.

How is it that the question of transport in France raises so many passions today ?

The main reason is that there were no real transport problems in France as long as 80% of the population could buy a car. From the 1950s to the 90s, the purchase price of a vehicle fell, compared to the minimum wage hours needed to pay for it. Same thing for fuel. The majority of the population has therefore organized their lives, their housing and their work accordingly. But the situation was reversed when the price of diesel was aligned with that of gasoline by the public authorities. The social pact disintegrated little by little. People found themselves with exploding transport costs, the impossibility of accessing a cheap electric car, and they were also accused of being bad French polluters.

You say in particular that a "real problem of understanding needs affects our decision-makers ", i.e. ?

In France, we continue to think in a binary way: all-train or all-car, while people need both, clearly articulated. And the indicators used in the surveys carried out among the French do not reflect their major concern: the cost of traveling. Some good ideas are sometimes generalized in territories where it does not make sense. Take the attachment to the ideal of a city accessible in a quarter of an hour: it is a good compass, which encourages mayors to distribute services well (kindergartens, parks , shops) in the four corners of their commune. But in Toulouse for example, 110,000 people go there to work every day, mainly by car, so for them, the ideal of fifteen minutes makes no sense! There is a significant gap between user needs and the proposed offering. This creates territorial inequalities, frustrations, distrust. We are fracturing society. The Yellow Vest movement is proof of this.

"We need to revitalize the little lines" : this is another preconceived idea that you denounce. Why ?

Listen, public funding needs are enormous, particularly in health and education. Given the international geopolitical context, we will also have to put money back into the army. So we will have to make choices. However, we know that in France, the average TER train in circulation is three-quarters empty. In short, on these small lines we run machines of 200 tons of scrap metal every day with 30 or 40 people inside… hellip; You can imagine the energy wasted ? And the cost ? Running a train costs 30 euros per kilometer, a coach only 3 euros. The Court of Auditors has written: the smallest train lines are not economically or ecologically reasonable. They should be replaced by buses and carpool lines.

But the coach is not popular in France…

Wrongly, because it works very well where it is deployed and users are delighted with it! In Madrid, San Francisco or Houston, in South Korea, in Japan, thousands of buses leave every day from the towns of the inner and outer suburbs, take the highway and transport people to the stations, so that ;rsquo;they continue their journey by metro or RER. And it works. In France, the coach suffers from a pre-war image. But it is now perfectly equipped: you travel seated, with air conditioning, wifi, a tablet. The time spent is therefore not wasted: we can work there, rest or discuss.

Road transport concerns a good third of households and above all a majority of kilometers per traveler. However, in your opinion, it is not taken into account enough in public public transport policies. Explain to us.

We have assimilated the road to individual transport, whereas it is entirely possible to optimize its use with collective transport. Even without a dedicated lane, I am convinced that it can work: rather than being alone behind the wheel, stuck in traffic and stressed, you can sit in a coach and drive while working or reading. You really save time!

Do you really think that the French are ready to accept changing their transport habits ?

Yes. This is what I call the force of reality: it is by seeing with their own eyes that a mode of transport works that they will adopt it. We don't tell people to abandon their cars. They will always need it to drop their child off at school, go shopping or go on vacation several times a year. But to go to work, they can save two tanks per month by borrowing shared solutions. The economic argument can convince them, as can the desire to save quality time. I am convinced that by acting on the journeys of daily life which are at the same time long, constrained, frequent and costly, we can reduce the territorial divide, an essential prerequisite for an effective transport decarbonization policy.< /p>

A word of conclusion ?

It is for all these reasons that the Minister of Transport announced on April 27 that it was necessary to accelerate the process of SERM (Metropolitan Regional Express Service) by initially deploying “SER” Express road services (express coaches and carpooling lines). This is going in the right direction.

With Picholines, free carpooling

Cœur D’Hérault Via its mobility policy, the Pays Cœur d’Hérault wants to develop carpooling. And for good reason: this mode of travel makes it possible to reduce transport costs by dividing the cost of the journey by the number of passengers and to reduce traffic and, consequently, pollution.

Since 2020, the Pays Cœur d’Hérault has been experimenting with Picholines, an innovative digital carpooling platform, in agreement with the Occitanie Region, responsible for coordinating mobility, and in coordination with Hérault Transport and the three communities of communes (Hérault Valley, Clermontais, Lodévois and Larzac). The interest of this solution is to offer more efficient and lower cost coverage of sparsely populated areas of the territory and destinations not covered by the public transport network.

To access the platform: https://www.picholines.fr

The Occitanie Region on the front line to decarbonize mobility

Local authorities are on the front line of the ecological transition. It is with this observation that Emmanuel Macron launched an appeal to them last September, inviting them to play a central role in the implementation of ecological planning within their territory, in order to ;achieve France's objectives for reducing greenhouse gas emissions: a reduction by half by 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2050.

This won't be easy! Occitanie, which aims to become the first positive energy region in Europe, has long invested in decarbonized trains (hybrid, battery, hydrogen) and in clean energy coaches. It also deploys several measures to facilitate the use of bicycles (support for the construction of cycle paths, greenways and cycle routes, assistance with the acquisition of a bicycle, support for the economic sector of bike).

"Several years ago, we took structuring turns for the future, by convincing the skeptics, the defeatists and by betting, for example, on the’ green hydrogen or by giving priority to the train", underlines Carole Delga, the president of the regional council, convinced for her part that "the train remains our best asset in the battle we have engaged to reduce the carbon footprint of our travel". A profitable strategy: since 2019, 25,000 new users have chosen to travel by liO train every day, an increase of 44%.

From trains powered by the energy from their braking to trains powered by hydrogen or electric batteries: the Occitanie Region is currently experimenting with three promising technologies on its territory in order to develop the green trains of the future.

Thus, France's first hybrid train traveled 8,000 km over three months on the Toulouse-Mazamet, Toulouse-Rodez and Toulouse-Auch lines. Powered by an electric line, diesel engine and rechargeable batteries, its first French prototype has a range of 1,000 km, it recharges its batteries by also recovering the energy produced during braking, which allows energy and emissions savings of 10 to 20%.

Another advantage: it is less noisy. Another innovation tested is the use of biofuels from waste. Thus, the hybrid train ran for a month with 100% renewable biofuel based on used oils (frying oils, etc.), in order to replace diesel.

At the same time, the Region has undertaken an unprecedented experiment with the Tarn company Safra to transform 15 diesel coaches into electric coaches with a fuel cell powered by hydrogen. The operation therefore consists of transforming diesel coaches into zero-emission vehicles, while giving them a second life and a range of 500 km.