Road travel options have multiplied in the space of a few years, with new platforms for carpooling, private rental and self-service cars. Users are now hyper-informed and connected, and are themselves generating new offerings, even if these modes of transport are still fortunately under public authority control.
In technology terms, autonomous vehicles (individual and collective) have been late to get going, due to safety issues on open roads and their low speeds (less than 20 kph). I don’t think these vehicles will be on the roads yet for another ten to fifteen years, apart from dedicated lanes or private rights of way.
On the other hand, the low-carbon vehicle sector is growing rapidly. Electric vehicles have paved the way for commercial and public transport fleets powered by hydrogen, pending the arrival of fuel cells.
Despite the spread of teleworking, travel will remain at levels comparable to those before the health lockdowns, because it seems that people are replacing business trips by personal travel.
Pierre Zembri
Director of the City, Mobility and Transport Laboratory (École des Ponts Paris Tech and Gustave Eiffel University joint research unit)
Key figures
- 88%: share of road travel in multimodal transport in France.
- -25%: decline in new car sales in France in 2020.
- +180%: increase in sales of electric vehicles in France in 2020 (9.5% of the market).
Sources : Transport et logistique de France, Argus, Avere France
