No alternative to the car: a vulnerable travel model

March 2024

Centre d’études et d’expertise sur les risques, l’environnement, la mobilité et l’aménagement (CEREMA)

70% of daily journeys are made by car, and sparsely populated areas with low levels of congestion have the most favourable conditions for this use, and are therefore much more unfavourable to public transport because of their dispersed housing and employment). In these areas, the car will remain in the majority, but a more balanced and inclusive model is still possible.

There is no single definition of sparsely populated areas. In practice, they include rural areas, but also the peri-urban areas of conurbations, suburbs, small and medium-sized towns and so on. Despite their diversity, they are all characterised by underdeveloped and sometimes inefficient public transport networks, due in particular to low density and a dispersed socio-economic fabric.

As a result, the ubiquity of the car continues unabated. Overall, private car traffic is not decreasing, and the distances travelled to reach centres of employment and services are long.

Vulnerable people 1 sometimes find themselves isolated or in great difficulty in accessing employment and essential services. All those who cannot drive or have a vehicle (the elderly, the vulnerable or those with reduced mobility) often give up for want of a solution.

Local authorities do not have as many human and financial resources as the largest conurbations to deal with mobility issues.

But solutions do exist and can be developed. They are often based on collective and cooperative initiatives, and public authorities have a major role to play in developing alternatives to the private car. They can facilitate the use of shared modes (car sharing, car pooling), active modes (cycling, walking), and solidarity modes (transport on demand 2, organised hitchhiking, etc.).

The development of intermodality, the creation of third places, and the introduction of mobile services or shops are all examples of effective action.

Sparsely populated areas have real assets and attract new residents (quality of life, access to nature). The issue of mobility needs to be considered on a broader scale, as part of a coherent territorial planning and development project.

  • 1 Household vulnerability is defined as a current situation that is not precarious but which tends to become so in the event of a crisis or shock.

  • 2 Transport on demand is a form of public transport subject to prior booking, which must be made more or less a long time in advance.

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