Strategy

The strategy relies on the one hand on recurrent chore tasks that are a necessary ground for research work, and on the other hand on specific research tracks.

As a chore task, the general framing of evolution of transportation mode, multimodality, travel purposes, distances, immobility, car ownership and use is performed in particular from national travel survey data and ParcAuto annual panel survey.

As further research perspective, the following are proposed :

• New data

To develop work on new mobility data collection modes, while keeping comparability with historical survey standards, in particular: how to extend surveys to non-residents? How to apply new technologies, including GPS, to follow mobility? How to use big data?

• De-motorization, changes of attitudes toward automobile

The automobile does not necessarily look any longer as a progress aspiration for all. Some voluntarily renounce, others maybe more out of constraints. By studying the reasons and motivations of automobile renouncement, the first stake is to grab how the automobile role in modal patterns can be reduced, how the automobile dependency of territories and cities can be diminished. The second stake is to understand the economic and social access consequences of such a renouncement. Those who retain car ownership are encouraged to adopt clean and energy efficient vehicles. Then it is important to understand household vehicle choice mechanisms and the obstacles and drivers of alternative technology adoption to identify instruments to favor purchase behavior change.

• People in need, handicap, inequities

Some people, who are in tight economic plight or disabled, may find it difficult to access mobility, or may be temporarily or permanently car dependent (although they cannot afford it), or may be vulnerable in particular for energy expenses. Beyond specific population categories, inequities are also examined through the transportation expenses. On the whole, the aim is to understand how the mobility system can be more inclusive, and how those access inequities can be reduced.

• Active modes, proximity, mode integration, access to stations

Active modes constitute an alternative form of mobility with respect to motorized transportation, with the pro of improving health; but their more limited range restricts them to a neighborhood perimeter unless they are combined with public transit to multiply their potential. Transit stations, and overall rail stations, are the privileged places of this inter-modal travel. Their accessibility by active modes must be protected and increased by relevant policy action defined at the city level. The role of stations and inter-modal hubs changes. They should not be only assessed for their transportation function but also as vibrant life places, integrated in re-designed and re-furbished neighborhoods in a sustainable mobility problematic.

• Road safety and public policy

Road crashes remain one of the most concerning negative effect of road transportation, with several thousands of casualties each year. Public policies should be studied, at the national, European or international level, including research about governance, institutional setting, organizations or actors play. For that, public policy analysis tools must be mobilized, and evaluation modalities must be improved (road injury valorization, economic calculation, etc.).

• Participation

Concertation processes evolve: for that, new public participation modalities must be analyzed.