Toulouse, fourth city in France for short-distance carpooling
We carpool a lot in Toulouse, which ranks fourth in France for short-distance carpooling, according to the specialist Klaxit. With the increase in fuel prices, motorists are looking for alternative solutions and this shared mode of transport is progressing.
Toulouse, the fourth largest city in France by population, occupies the same place at the foot of the podium (outside Paris) for short-distance carpooling, all operators combined, according to a study by Klaxit, a specialist in this shared mode of transport. But the map of France of the cities that carpool the most does not correspond to the usual map of the largest French cities. Indeed, some cities financially encourage their inhabitants to carpool, others not yet, and it shows!
In Toulouse, twice less carpooling than Rouen
The Pink City recorded 10,804 journeys made in March 2022. Rouen is by far in first position with more than 22,000 journeys made in the same period, followed by Angers (14,212), Montpellier (13,758) and Nantes (12,002) . Annecy, Beauvais and Metz each make more than 10,000 monthly trips. Beauvais even has more trips made by carpooling than Lyon or Marseille, being 25 times smaller. Bordeaux, Lille, Strasbourg, Rennes and Grenoble, which are nevertheless part of the Top 10 of French cities, are absent from the ranking.
The share of journeys made in Ile-de-France represents almost half of the journeys made in France. Part of this is explained by the fact that Ile-de-France Mobilités has been subsidizing carpooling since October 2017. Occitanie ranks third out of 13 regions, with a very strong increase (+68%) compared to February 2022, linked to the increase in fuel. 2,091 carpooling trips were made in Albi in March 2022 and 1,309 in Sète.
Why such differences between certain cities and regions? Since the vote of the LOM law (mobility orientation law) at the end of 2019, the economic model of short-distance carpooling has been based on the financial incentives put in place by local authorities.
A gain of 120 euros per month for a regular driver
A real “magic formula”, according to Klaxit: passengers travel for free or at a symbolic price and drivers are paid between 2 euros and 4 euros per trip and per passenger, or 120 euros per month for regular use. It is the community that pays the difference and thus creates an economic interest for motorists to leave their car in the garage and become a carpool passenger.
The rise in fuel prices massively encourages motorists to look for alternative solutions and we thus note a 54% increase in carpooling for the cities of the Top 10 in March compared to February. But the trigger for carpooling is the financial incentive of the community, according to Klaxit. Even with very high fuel prices, no financial incentive, no action or regular carpooling. And when that incentive stops, the carpooling stops. Between mid-July 2020 and mid-February 2021, Ile-de-France Mobilités suspended its financing of carpooling journeys, leading to a 95% drop in carpooling journeys in Ile-de-France, according to the National Observatory of daily carpooling.
The Toulouse metropolitan area has delegated its transport and mobility skills to Tisséo, which has launched a dedicated application, covoiteo. As part of the European Commute project, 80% funded by the European Union for a total cost of 5.2 million euros, a carpooling operation was carried out around the airport area which met with some success . To be continued.
Special operation around the airport
Thanks to the Karos application and the Commute project, 35,000 employees of Toulouse Blagnac airport, Airbus, ATR, Safran and Sopra Steria have been able to access carpooling trips at negotiated rates since 2018. application connects its users according to their home-to-work journey. 90,000 journeys and 17 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions have been stopped, by allowing drivers to leave their cars in the garage. The operation ended in June 2021, but the application is still active. In the Commute project, user cars transported 2.28 people on average, compared to 1.07 people in a “conventional” car. 80% of the municipalities served are sparsely populated municipalities. The journeys of 18 km on average leave the countryside, where there is no public transport, to fall back to the airport.