Shortage of gasoline: fewer cars in Toulouse, the full metro and the boosted bike
The shortage of gasoline has led to a drop in car traffic in Toulouse this week, as the services of the Metropolis have measured.
Route d’Albi, avenue Jean-Chaubet, avenue de l’URSS, de Grande Bretagne… Every day, thanks to the meters, the Toulouse Métropole mobility department records the number of vehicles passing through these arteries penetrating pink of the City. And the figures for this Monday 10 to Thursday 13 October confirm what the inhabitants of these neighborhoods have noticed since the shortage of gasoline has become more pressing: the drop in the number of cars in circulation, even, in certain places, the disappearance morning and evening traffic jams…
The comparison with October 2021 thus shows, for each of these four days, a decrease in traffic of 7% to nearly 10%. Every day, on average, the seize of the avenues which are the subject of measures have seen pass by accumulating around 160,000 cars. The decline is observed during both morning and evening peak hours. And it was accentuated this Thursday.
Has the public transport network seen an influx of more passengers? This is likely when you see the filling of the metro. In the morning, users sometimes have to let several trains pass before they can board. However, Tisséo Voyageurs remains cautious. “We can clearly see a growth in traffic of 2 to 4% in the first days of October compared to the last weeks of September. But this increase is part of “a re-entry dynamic” which is observed each year with a month of October “almost systematically stronger” than September. It is therefore necessary to wait a little to measure a surplus of passengers.
On the VéloToulouse side, the influx is there. Wednesday and Thursday, Patrick Trégou, the regional director of JCDecaux, recorded more than 17,000 locations per day. This indicator had already risen to 16,000 last week when the usual average is around 13,000 per day.