To encourage employees to carpool, the metropolis of Rouen finances journeys
Cars bumper to bumper, the scene is repeated morning and evening at the motorway exit of Val-de-Reuil (Eure). To reach this pool of companies, 30 km south-east of Rouen, thousands of employees consume their cars every day. A trip made alone in the vast majority of cases since each vehicle carried an average of 1.03 passengers. This axis was therefore chosen to experiment a carpool line.
In principle, it is more like a bus line. There are stops – installed in each of the two cities, near the most heavily trafficked axes – and also traffic timetables. For the moment, slots are limited to peak hours: Monday to Friday, from 6:30 a.m. to 8:30 a.m. then from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. Once designated to stop, the user only has to report using a dedicated mobile application. Motorists traveling in the same direction are then informed that a passenger is waiting.
Free for passengers
This system called
Covoit’ici already has about thirty active lines in France. In Rouen, a second line opened this Monday, November 28 to provide new links with the city of Barentin (Seine-Maritime). And to encourage the inhabitants of these municipalities to carpool, a financial incentive is offered to them. For passengers, who have therefore not taken their car, the journey is free. Drivers are compensated 1 euro for each trip offered on the application, to which are added 2 euros per passenger transported.
A system that seduced Hervé, 53 years old. This IT developer drives 55 km every day towards Val-de-Reuil. For him, carpooling is above all “helping others, especially people who don’t have a car”. After having tried several applications, it is finally Covoit’ici that he adopts. “I like it! I meet people like that”, he says, before regretting not “have a regular passenger”. By systematically offering his journeys on the application, Hervé therefore receives at least 2 euros per day. A boost that encourages him to continue.
8 minute wait on average
Because for the system to work, a number of drivers are needed. “We are still in the launch phase”, confides in this regard Justine Granjon, animator of the Covoit’ici community in Rouen. Eight months after the opening of the line, it totals around forty passengers transported per week and just over 200 drivers connected.
To win over new passengers, Covoit’ici puts forward an average waiting time of 8 minutes. And if the wait is prolonged, the company provides taxi pick-up. “This is how you get out of the idea that driving your car is freedom”assures Justine Granjon.
An on-demand system
At the same time, another carpooling application is also deployed throughout the territory of Rouen metropolis.
Klaxit also makes it possible to get to work by subsidized carpooling. This time there is no imposed itinerary but the obligation to anticipate your reservation.
For six months, Valentin, assistant project manager at the Saint-Étienne du Rouvray hospital, has been traveling with Laura, his colleague. Both have found their habits: “We meet at school where we both drop off our children”, explains Valentin. And when we ask the 30-something to take stock of this daily carpooling, he replies with a smile: “It’s win-win. Me, I don’t have to pay anything and I refuel my car three times less than before.” As for Laura, she appreciates the “moment of conviviality“offered by carpooling.
1 million euros
In either case, the Rouen carpooling model is therefore based on the financial support of the community. For the year spent, this represents one million euros. A substantial sum but which largely contributes to the growth in demand, according to David Di Nardo, Klaxit’s development director: “The fact that Rouen has put the financial means allows us to be in a spirit of conquest. We make 3,000 trips a day around Rouen, that’s seven times more than in Lyon for example”.
To continue with this strategy, Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol, the PS mayor and president of the metropolis of Rouen, is ready to devote even more money to carpooling. “By encouraging car sharing, we show that we can reconcile ecology and economy while using traffic plugs”, he explains. Another point raised by the elected official: the distance traveled by carpooling is on average 28 kilometers. “This means that we are reaching people outside the mainland and therefore beyond our competence for the management of buses and cycle paths in particular. This therefore also benefits what is called peripheral France.”the chosen one is satisfied.
Cheaper than a bus
The carpooling subsidy would be all the more virtuous if it does not harm investments in traditional public transport, according to Bruno Cordier. “There are sectors where it is difficult to make public transport attractive, especially where the population density is low. In this case, carpooling has a more reasonable cost than a bus line.”says the head of Adetec, a design office specializing in transport issues.