Emmanuel Ravalet

High Mobility in Europe: An Overview

Using the quantitative part of the fob Mobility and Family Lives in Europe study (JobMob), the present chapter describes (1) the scope of high mobility in Europe, (2) to what extent Europeans are increasingly highly mobile, (3) who the highly mobile people are and (4) how they perceive their mobility. This general overview is discussed in the light of existing literature in the area. Such an overview has already been carried out, based on the 2007 survey conducted in the six countries of Germany, Spain, France, Switzerland, Belgium and Poland (Luck and Ruppenthal, 2010). This chapter pursues this work with a longitudinal approach. A few results from 2007 are presented again for comparison. Here we only consider the first four countries and reversible high mobility practices, namely, daily long-distance commuting, overnighting (long-distance weekly commuting and regular business travel) and long-distance relationships. People who have recently migrated are not considered highly mobile in the present book. Whenever possible, we highlight situations that are specific to each country and the form of high mobility considered.

De nouveaux usages de la vitesse ? Réseaux, territoires et société

Les auteurs presentent un numero special de la revue RTS (2015, Recherche Transports Securite) qui est consacre aux usages de la vitesse et vise a une meilleure comprehension des effets de lacceleration sur les societes occidentales contemporaines, au niveau des modes de vie des personnes, du fonctionnement des entreprises et des dynamiques territoriales. Il sinteresse, dans une perspective historique, a linstitutionnalisation des reseaux de transport favorisant la vitesse et a leur acceptation sociale, aux choix politiques qui ont facilite le developpement des vitesses de deplacements et aux usages que font les individus des potentiels de vitesse procures par les offres de transport. La vitesse a contribue a creer ce que de nombreuses analyses nomment les « societes mobiles » [2, 3], qui se caracterisent par de multiples injonctions autour de la mobilite et de la flexibilite [4, 1]. Ces injonctions faconnent les inegalites sociales, et conduisent a une acceleration generale des modes de vie contemporains [5, 6]. Elles se traduisent par une intensification des deplacements des personnes, en termes de frequence, de portee spatiale et de vitesses et une extension de la spatialite des relations sociales et professionnelles [7]. Pour introduire les articles de ce numero special, nous proposons de revisiter lacronyme de la revue, RTS signifiant ici Reseaux, Territoires et Societe. Nous evoquerons donc, en premier lieu, la place de la vitesse dans les reseaux (de transport, dinformation, etc.), pour discuter ensuite de leurs effets sur les territoires et des usages qui en sont faits.

Quel potentiel des personnes face à la grande mobilité ? Réflexions exploratoires autour de la notion de motilité

Le developpement des offres en matiere de transports et de technologies de la communication permettent aux personnes de se deplacer toujours plus, plus loin et plus rapidement. La flexibilisation du marche du travail impose l’utilisation de ces potentiels et favorise la mobilite. Plus specifiquement, elle accompagne l’emergence de pratiques de grande mobilite, telles que la pendularite de longue duree, la bi-residentialite ou encore les voyages frequents pour motif professionnel. Dans ce contexte, les personnes ne sont pas toutes egales face a la grande mobilite. Base sur l’enquete quantitative longitudinale Job Mobilities and Family Lives realisee en 2007 puis en 2011, cet article, dans une perspective transversale et longitudinale, vise a explorer le potentiel de (grande) mobilite des personnes, a l’aide du concept de « motilite ». Premierement, les resultats montrent que la motilite permet de decrire finement les situations des personnes dans la perspective d’un recours eventuel a la grande mobilite. Alors que certains sont dans une position confortable face a la grande mobilite, d’autres en revanche combinent de mauvaises competences de mobilite et des acces limites. Meme s’ils se declarent disposes a la grande mobilite, ils apparaissent comme plus vulnerables. Deuxiemement, l’evolution du potentiel de mobilite est avant tout portee par des changements dans les projets de mobilite : les contextes familiaux, economiques et spatiaux dans lesquels les personnes se trouvent expliquent ces changements. La situation des Espagnols, particulierement touches par la crise des 2008, est a ce sujet tres parlante. Finalement, l’analyse du lien entre motilite et mobilite montre, de maniere contre-intuitive, qu’un plus grand potentiel de mobilite ne se traduit pas necessairement par un recours plus important a la grande mobilite.

Cycling in the city, reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and economic impact on tourism: case study of Puebla, Mexico

Cycling in the city, a practice which had been lost progressively since the 1960s with the rapid expansion of the use of the automobile, has recently become common practice in many cities of the North where the bicycle had almost disappeared. Urban speedways and viaducts built in the 1960s are being reconsidered and even destroyed to give place to boulevards and a friendlier urban environment for pedestrians. Many examples are available: Lyon with the introduction of VeloV in 2005, Paris with the introduction of Velib in 2007 and Montreal with the introduction of BIXI in 2009 are recent experiences which may be cited as best practices. Could similar policies be applicable to Latin American cities where the use of the bicycle has been progressively abandoned but seems to have now a regaining image? What could be its potential impact on diminishing greenhouse gas emissions? What could be its potential impact on tourism? After a rapid review of various experiences in Europe, Canada and Latin America, we will focus on the example of Puebla, a city of 1.5 million inhabitants in the Centre-East of Mexico, for which we collected data in an opinion survey (2007-8) on non motorized modes. This case study leads to conclusions on the feasibility of such policies in a South American context and its potential impact in terms of sustainability as well as in economic benefits via the tourist industry. An approximation of the emissions in urban transportation that can be saved by the practice of the bicycle for utilitarian an leisure purposes and multimodality Bike-Public Transport, facilitated by the rent-a-bike systems,

Segregation and daily mobility, an international comparison

This paper describes how, while there is a great deal of literature on the socio-economic specialization of residential spaces, little has been written about the other spaces of the city that articulate citizen’s daily lives. The paper examines urban segregation through the lens of individual everyday mobility in three cities: Lyons in France, Puebla in Mexico and Niamey in Niger. This comparison serves to highlight particularly strong trends that structure everyday patterns of activity and use of urban spaces (despite important differences of the modal shares). Between choices and constraints, citizens move in spaces that differ according to demographic, economic and geographic features. The latter are dealt with in transport household surveys carried out in each city, on which our research method is based. Urban areas of each city were selected and behaviors of individuals were studied in terms of activities and daily mobility. The study pursues two purposes: the characterization of individuals’ travel-activity patterns and the description of the relationship of these patterns to a large range of variables (individuals’ and households’ characteristics). Transport and activities behavior vary greatly according to the particular social group under study, partly because of their unequal access to means of transport. Constraints related to social and economic status are particularly relevant in explaining these differences. Gender also appears to be a central factor in the analysis of segregation in some neighborhoods of Puebla, Lyons and Niamey. An original insight into urban segregation is finally obtained, based on individuals and on activities in space and time.