The objectives of reducing carbon carbon emissions require reviewing the model of “individual right to mobility” and, in particular, car travel habits.
By Sophie Fay
Analysis. The government has a few months to define its priorities in terms of transport infrastructure for the five to ten years old. It would even be necessary, in ideal, to have visibility on four quinquenats, estimates the report that the Infrastructure Orientation Council (COI) is preparing to give to the Prime Minister. Already, a form of consensus seems to be taking shape through this document: the priority goes to the investment in the rail to put an end to the aging of the French network and give it the means to take charge of a greater part of the transport of people and goods. The train thus symbolizes the hope placed in public transport to succeed in reducing carbon emissions from the sector. A projection that is partly due to the mirage!
“Public transport is 80 % of conferences and reports, but only from 10 % to 20 % of mobility”, recalls the economist Yves Crozet, professor emeritus at Sciences Po Lyon, who has just written A note entitled “Climate and mobility commitments: looking for the common good”, for the TDIE association, which brings together all the actors, public and private, who are interested in modes of transport. The expert finds that, in the past fifteen years, despite the new lines, the rail market share has only increased by 1 point (from 10 % to 11 %) for travelers. On the goods side, it even fell by 2 points (from 10 % to 8 %). Public spending on public transport comes up against economists calling “decreasing yields”: in Europe, the high -speed line network has tripled in number of kilometers, but traffic has only doubled. Because the last lines or extensions are not necessarily the most frequented.
It is therefore essential to take an interest in road mobility, which represents between 75 % and 85 % of uses, and not only by setting the electrification of the car fleet. “By 2030, the renewal of it will be modest,” warns Yves Crozet, because electric cars are more expensive. In fact, in 2022, registrations in France further fell 7.8 %. The number of kilometers traveled per capita each year reached its peak in the early 2000s and has been stabilized since.
“Orient behavior”
“The time has come to ask us frankly the question: what becomes of the right to mobility with a climate change that imposes sobriety?” Summarizes Philippe Duron, former deputy (PS) and ex-mayor of Caen, Today co -president of the TDIE association. The right to mobility, installed by the LOTI law of 1982, confirmed by the LOM law of 2019, could it be questioned? For Yves Crozet, he will evolve. So far, public policies aimed to encourage, to facilitate mobility. They must now gradually bring citizens to consider them as a common good, which must be saved, preserve, rather than a limitless right.
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