More than eight out of ten drivers travel alone in their car in the morning, according to a study published Wednesday by the motorway manager Vinciwhich analyzed the data provided by cameras on its highways. Of the 1.5 million vehicles analyzed in the fall of 2021 near large cities, between 8 a.m. and 10 a.m. on weekdays, 82.6% carried only one person in the front.
“Autosolism” experiences a peak at 8 a.m., the peak hour for home trips.work, with 89% single people. It then decreases to drop below 75% around 10 a.m. Rates vary by city. There are more lone drivers on the A11 north of Nantes, on the A10 in Tours or on the A62 in Toulouse, than on the A83 south of Nantes or on the A8 between Nice and Aix-en -Provence.
Motorways account for a quarter of transport CO2 emissions
The fight against “autosolisme”, in particular via carpooling, is one of the government’s main avenues to limit traffic and therefore air pollution. Motorways represent 1% of the French road network, but 30% of the distances traveled and 25% of CO2 emissions from transport, according to the Road Union. “Even if solo driving is very prevalent”, this study “shows that the practice of shared mobility and its development potential remain undervalued, including in the context of daily journeys”, underlines Pierre Coppey, president of Vinci Highways.
In 2019, the government set itself the goal of tripling the share of home-to-work carpooling in five years, to reach three million carpoolers. Either run one million fewer cars per day on French roads. The law allows since 2019 to reserve lanes for carpooling, as it has existed for many years in North America or elsewhere. Several lanes reserved for “VR2 +” (vehicles carrying at least two occupants, public transport, taxis, very low-emission vehicles) have been put into service in Lyon, Grenoble, Strasbourg, Bordeaux or in the Paris region, according to the Center National Institute for Studies and Expertise on Risks, the Environment, Mobility and Planning (Cerema).
The proliferation of these reserved lanes requires “effective control of the number of occupants”, underlines Cerema. Several devices have been tested, such as in Rouen or at the Franco-Swiss customs in Thônex-Vallard. Some counting devices appear reliable enough to display educational messages, but not enough to allow automated sanctions.
The approval of an automated control solution is not expected before the end of 2023, indicated Cerema, but computer-assisted video-verbalization solutions could be implemented before this date. Vinci, which markets its counting solution via its subsidiary Cyclope.ai, intends to publish an update of its barometer in June.