Sébastien Bailleul: “Indeed, the assessment we make at Wimoov — particularly through a daily mobility barometer that we launched four years ago, in 2019, so nearly five years now — is based on an indicator of mobility insecurity. This indicator covers several areas, but two main ones: first, the fact that some people have no access at all to transport options in their daily lives; that’s the first element we look at. The second is car dependency — being 100% dependent on an individual car. When we combine these indicators, especially these two main ones, we can say that today in France, 13 million people face mobility insecurity. Wimoov’s work each year is to support 3,000 people. If we add up all the inclusive mobility actors in France, we support about 100,000 people. Between 100,000 and 13 million — you can see the gap. There has indeed been progress politically and legislatively. In France, a new law was enacted in early 2020: the Mobility Orientation Law. This represents a major shift for France, as previous laws focused on transport infrastructure, mass transit, and so on. Today, the Mobility Orientation Law establishes a principle: the right to mobility for all. It also introduces initial measures related to solidarity‑based mobility — meaning how to address the needs of populations most affected by mobility insecurity in social and economic terms. This is a significant first step. However, we face a situation in which the necessary resources — and the obligation to provide such resources — are not yet included in the law. There is therefore essential work to be done with the French authorities, the government, local authorities, and also private transport operators to ensure that solidarity‑based mobility is fully integrated and considered in public policies and the projects being developed. There have nonetheless been positive advances. A new law has also been adopted in France concerning Metropolitan Express Networks (SERM), which specifically addresses intermodality — how people in low‑density or remote areas can switch from one mode of transport to another when they live farther from city centres. So we can see a positive trend in this respect. Now, what is needed are resources — especially financial ones — to make this happen. We believe that supporting individuals directly — informing them about what exists in their area, about alternatives to the car, which is often costly — through information, training, and personalised support, leads to concrete results. Therefore, funding must be released specifically for this purpose.”
At Wimoov, we have developed an indicator of precarious mobility. This indicator covers 2 main fields:
When we combine these different indicators, we can say that today in France, 13 million people are in precarious mobility situations.
Each year, Wimoov's job is to support 30,000 people. If we add up all the actors in inclusive mobility in France, we'll be supporting 100,000 people. There's a gap between 100,000 and 13 million.
We're seeing progress on the political and legislative fronts. In France, a new law was promulgated at the beginning of 2020, a mobility orientated law. It's a big change for France, which was focused on transport, infrastructure and public transport. Today, this law establishes a principle: the right to mobility for all, and sets out the first elements of solidarity-based mobility. It's a good first step, but we're also faced with a situation where the means don't exist in the law. We need to work with the French authorities, the government and local authorities, as well as with private transport players, to fully integrate solidarity mobility into public policies and projects. There is also another law in France on SERMs, which takes into account this very consideration of working on intermodality in sparsely populated areas.
There's a positive trend in these areas, and now we need the financial resources to make it happen. In particular, we think we need to release resources to support people by informing them about what exists in their area.
