MOBILITY AND TERRITORY
What levers to change mobility patterns and reduce energy consumption?
Sylvanie GODILLON (research agency)
Gaële LESTEVEN (research agency)
Anaïs ROCCI (research agency)
As a way to reduce the negative externalities of individual car use, changing mobility behaviour is a challenge for governments. The latter cannot solely rely on technology to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases and local pollutants. To reduce private car use, policies oscillate between incentives (information, awareness, development of new services, improvement of public transport networks, etc.) and coercive measures (restriction of parking and traffic areas for cars). Our proposal is based on several recent researches, studies and experiments (“state of the art” researches, quantitative and qualitative surveys) which focus on three levers that contribute to modal behaviour change: new mobility services (e. g. carsharing and bikesharing schemes) appear as triggers for multimodal behaviour, but are only available to a minority of the population; measures for the restriction of car use in urban areas (limited parking, congestion charge, etc.), while effective, raise problems of social acceptability and fairness and do not generate profound changes in behaviour; measures aiming at assisting people individually so they change their mobility patterns (individualized marketing tools) are developed internationally but remain rare in France. The latter help users move from intentions to actions and reduce their energy consumption, by providing them personalized information and opportunities to try alternative transport modes. Through a cross-sectional analysis on the environmental, social, and economic stakes of these levers, our proposal aim at understanding to what extent they generate changes in practices and representations of various modes of transport and thereby contribute to the reduction of energy consumption.
KEY WORDS: behavioural change, mobility, shared mode of transportation, individualised marketing, restrictive measures.
From residential location to energy consumptions in the house and through mobility.
Mathieu DURAND-DAUBIN (EDF/R&D/GRETS)
Vincent KAUFMANN (EPFL/Urban sociology laboratory)
Emmanuel RAVALET (EPFL/Urban sociology laboratory)
Lorris TABBONE (EPFL/Urban sociology laboratory)
The design of policies and interventions aiming at the reduction of energy consumption requires a good understanding of the social logics that explain consumption. In this perspective, this paper focuses on how geographic location can play a role on daily activities within and outside home, and on the resulting energy consumptions in the house and during mobility.
This analysis is based on an ad hoc survey of 2000 French households, in the late 2013. The questionnaire was focused on the relationship between daily activities, mobility and energy consumption. This detailed description was associated to a range of structuring questions about the choice of residential location and equipment, and more general values. Complementary technical information was also collected on the household building, appliances, and socio-demographics.
The survey data were then linked to territorial variables such as: employment and population densities; degree of economic and functional specialisation; distance of households from urban centres; presence and density of local infrastructure; distances from regional-scale infrastructure (e.g. highways, train stations and airports); and a social characterisation of these territories (socio-professional categories, income, size and structure of households…). Several databases from the French statistical office (INSEE) were used to perform this characterisation (Census, Base Permanente des Equipements).
Our initial analysis consists in clustering the respondents based on their stated daily activities and values, after showing these variables can be associated to form consistent lifestyles. We propose here to consider both short and long term choices respectively made at the individual and household scales. Then we study the relationship between these lifestyles and the properties of the territories, buildings, and technical environment in which they are found. We also propose to focus on the trade-offs between activities made at home and activities made outside. Finally, we describe how these various lifestyles, in combination with the associated territories and buildings, involve different types and levels of energy consumption.
This study provides specific insights on the central role of the territory and the resources it offers, which enables and constrains the activities carried out by residents and the subsequent energy consumption.
KEY WORDS: energy consumption, house, mobility, lifestyles, locations.
Uses of energy and mobility: a study of residential lifestyles.
Olivier BONIN (Paris Est University/ENPC/LVMT)
Frédéric DE CONINCK (Paris Est University/ENPC/LVMT)
Margot PELLEGRINO (Urban School of Paris/Lab’Urba ; Paris Est University)
Nadine ROUDIL(Centre Scientifique et Technique du Bâtiment, Paris Est University)
Acting on energy consumption related to urban mobility and housing means to know and understand the organization of the daily lives of individuals, the space designed by mobility, their relation with equipments, their way of living in the dwelling. It is particularly necessary to identify, on a day-to-day basis, the reasons for changes in practices leading – largely indirectly and unintentionally- to a greater or lower energy consumption (e.g. changes in the household composition, in supply of transport and services …).
This contribution will present the results of a qualitative survey (i.e. semi-structured interviews) carried out in 2013-2014 within 34 households in Montévrain and Bussy-Saint-Georges about their mobility practices and uses of energy in housing. The analysis of mobility adopts two points of view. First, a general and global vision is proposed, revealing the perception and the geography of the territories. This approach focuses on the analysis of mobility destinations and refers to a « balance » in the daily practice of the territory. In a second step, the interviews study proceeds to a more analytical exercise on modal mobility practices. Emphasis is placed on the occupants’ motivations in choosing their mode of mobility. The focus on residential energy consumption leads to identify key behavioural profiles and the « difficulties » often shared by the occupants for controlling and reducing consumptions.
This research is part of a larger study carried out by Urban Futures Labex in collaboration with the EPA Marne. It will be (in December 2014) the subject of a collective discussion on the results and the possible urban development strategies, associating Montévrain and Bussy-Saint-Georges professionals through the implementation of a workshop whose findings could also be presented at the 2015 JISE.
KEY WORDS: residential lifestyles, energy uses, urban mobility, changing practices, qualitative research and collective workshop.
City narratives facing the energy transition: the production of a metropolitan identity in Bordeaux, Cincinnati (USA) and Curitiba (Brazil).
Fanny GERBEAUD (Doctoral school SP2/ Emile Durkheim Center/ ENSAPBX/PAVE)
Patrice GODIER (Doctoral school SP2/ Emile Durkheim Center/ ENSAPBX/PAVE)
Given the unanimous finding of a changing climate which requires repositioning of urban policies, cities display energy and transport at the heart of their concerns. However, the very term « energy transition » has specific local meanings, which causes a wide range of actions and visions to think about the future of cities. To understand how the energy issue is modifying the urban thought and governance, we conducted an international comparative study from the perspective of mobility in Bordeaux (France), Cincinnati (USA) and Curitiba (Brazil). Each illustrates a past and ways to make the city closely linked to a socio-economic context. By analyzing discourses, transport network news, urban planning documents but also by interviews with various stakeholders, we could determine the « setting of the narrative » of city projects and underlying concepts (multimodality, equity, etc.). Generally, the definition of these concepts endorses objectives identified by urban authorities while promoting achievements already in place. It is less a question of « revolutionizing » the cities in question but to convince that the initiated projects and available skills will access to a better living together and strengthen the metropolitan exposure (ensuring its attractivity in the long term) on a basis of sustainability. The energy challenge appears, in this context, as a supportive tool to develop large-scale urban plans.
Inter-metropolitan competition can be clearly seen with Bordeaux that wants to rank among the European sustainable cities, with Cincinnati that wants to change its mining past into a virtuous economic future and Curitiba, although declining, that wants to stay an example in terms of urban planning and transport. Such initiatives provoke logically debates among residents and users, but also among the various actors (public and private) in charge of their implementation. If « energy transition » justifies the redistribution of markets – with the adoption of information and transport (metro, tram-train) technology – it may also cleave territories and indicate ambitions considered too expensive. Technological innovation and the weight of the public and private sector are therefore presented as critical in achieving the metropolitan transport programs. The place of private investors in Cincinnati is more important, whereas in Curitiba, the role of institutional experts is increasing to ensure political stability and transparency of initiated projects.
In this context, public policies tend to focus on integrating change in a continuity plan in order to bring the users together around the creation of a common metropolitan identity. The aim is the emergence of a « city actor », supervisor or initiator of actions on the territory in order to better disseminate the proposed model.
KEY WORDS: narrative, international comparison, energy, mobility, metropolitan identity.
Energy-related economic stress at the interface between transport, housing and fuel poverty: a multinational study .
Giulio MATTIOLI (Leeds University/ Institute of Transportation Studies)
In the UK at present domestic energy issues are framed in terms of reducing energy consumption and emissions, while at the same time taking into account fuel poverty (an established area of interest for British policy and research). However, transport poverty has not yet attracted the same attention, despite the strong British tradition of transport and social exclusion research. Notably, the interrelationships between transport- and housing-related economic stress are under researched. The debate is more advanced in France where notions of ‘energy precariousness’ and ‘vulnerability’ have been applied to both sectors. The paper builds on a multilingual literature review to illustrate how these issues have been linked (or not) in France, Germany and the UK, highlighting similarities and differences in understandings of deprivation across the transport / housing energy divide. Based on a quantitative secondary analysis of national expenditure survey data and EU living conditions data using clustering & latent class analysis techniques, the paper puts forward a typology of ‘transport poor’ households, taking into account their levels of housing-related economic stress and material deprivation. Notably, emphasis is given to the consequences of economic stress for low-income, car-owning households in car dependent areas, highlighting similarities and differences between the national case studies. The paper concludes by reflecting on the implications of the findings for the distributional and total demand implications of energy demand reduction policies and scenarios.
KEY WORDS: transport poverty, fuel poverty, affordability, housing, social exclusion.
Mobility vulnerabilities in sparsely populated territories: renewing ways to design support for daily mobility.
Sandrine DE-BORAS (Docteur en Économie, Mention Transports /Direction Stratégie et Innovation Transdev)
Marie-Hélène MASSOT (Université Paris Est Créteil/Institut d’Urbanisme de Paris)
If sprawl is synonymous for many French people with ownership of a house that is for many, the realization of a whole life, it is also synonymous with the emergence of vulnerabilities related to mobility. Defined by a weakness or an inability of people to anticipate or resist to a hazard, vulnerability of a person reflects a level of risk exposure when this hazard occurs; this exposure requires in this case, intervention, assistance, protection. Today, in low population density areas built on an autonomous and fast moving standard, live 40% of French population with a growing part affected by these vulnerabilities. Access to amenities and social inclusion will indeed imply the use of the automobile which requires the economic resources and / or physical, cognitive skills, dramatically absent for some. The « autonomous mobility limitation or absence » (Orfeuil., 2003; Massot & Jouffe, 2013, Mignot et al, 2006), are eroding a « generic mobility right » (Ascher, 2000, 2006), introducing a risk of social exclusion for some and possibly a vitality reduction for territories.
The mobility vulnerabilities are significant in their effects although they are still poorly understood and poorly measured due to their multidimensional aspects and due to a visibility punctuated by cyclical developments. Therefore, how to identify these personal and territorial vulnerabilities, how to anticipate and allow everyone access to amenities in a context of local public found reduction and unemployment development ?
Steeped in this context, our communication describes and analyzes support solutions for mobility vulnerabilities whose sparsely populated areas are suffering. This relates to exploration of mobility management methods, conducted in Bourgogne (France), based on a collaborative innovation process conducted within the framework of creative workshops with local stakeholders. The explicit assumption of this work is that it is in this diversity – of sectors and actors – and at this scale – local – that corresponds fruitful innovation and good adhesion to support solutions in face to vulnerability mobility because elaborated in common.
This article reflects this approach and the development of the tool developed to bring out solutions and different results. The first set of solutions is expressed through a presentation of mobility services. The second set reports on the evolution of public territorial action related to mobility standards and more extensively to developments in processes, decision, design, implementation, governance, but also funding.
KEY WORDS: Public policies and territories, transport and Mobility.
What are the strategies of households experiencing energy vulnerability in order to cope with rising energy prices?
Anaïs ROCCI (6t Research agency)
This proposal presents some results of a qualitative survey to explore the coping strategies of vulnerable households in the face of rising energy prices in the domestic sphere, but also in the residential and travel patterns.
This survey was conducted by 6t-bureau de recherche, a French mobility-oriented firm, as part of a research program funded by the national agency PUCA (Urban Development Construction and Architecture Plan) in partnership with the IAU-Ile-de-France (Ile-de-France Regional Urban Planning and Development Institute).
The methodology is organised into two parts helping us to understand their arbitrations under heavy budgetary constraints. The first part is based on one-hour qualitative face-to-face interviews conducted with thirty vulnerable households facing energy vulnerability in the suburban areas of Ile-de-France. The second part includes a “prospective game”, based on photographic illustrations, simulating the effects of an increase of energy prices on their daily lifestyles.
We focus on the concept of energy vulnerability, which describes a « tense situation » in which many households find themselves, and which may lead to fuel poverty in a short-term. The complexity of the energy vulnerability process is considered in our work through a twofold thrusts: housing (electricity, gas, heating) and mobility (fuel prices). We analyse households’ coping strategies according to these twofold thrusts along their individual life paths and their daily activities.
The results show that households are multiplying the most effective strategies to limit their spending by adjusting their flexible expenditure items. However, the choices of locations, and the travel constraints that result from it, remain irreducible expenditures stemmed from compromises. Home ownership is a guarantee to limit potential future risks.
KEY WORDS: energy vulnerability, travel, residential strategies, adaptation, energy price.
Accession à la propriété : peut-on invoquer des critères énergétiques pour comprendre les arbitrages de localisation ?
Joël MEISSONNIER (CEREMA – Direction territoriale Nord-Picardie / Département « Transport-Mobilité », Groupe « Mobilités et territoires » ; IFSTTAR /Équipe de Recherche Associée « Analyse de la mobilité »)
The Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs) try to define the energy performance of buildings and provide a framework that is the basis upon which public policies offer incentive measures such as eco-loans, zero tax credits, the participation of employers in the construction effort… Before selling or renting, the assessment of the energy performance of buildings was made mandatory on a European scale further to a directive coming both from the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union regarding the energy performance of buildings (directive 2002/91/EC of 16 December 2002). Displayed in real-estate agencies and required to the notarial file the certificates may guide the residential choices and should encourage households to prefer the energy efficient housing. Public policies thus contribute to make people aware of the energy dimension.
The paper first questions the energy dimension as a housing choice criterion. It seems hardly appropriate to characterize the arbitration process among the home buyers. Regarding a residential choice, people enter in a kind of sedimentation process. As we know since the seminal work of Herbert Simon followed by those of Haroun Jamous and Lucien Sfez, the viewable part of a decision (a person, an order, a date…) hides numerous interactions that took part into the decision. This decision is not so clear, unequivocal or uni-personal. It is above all a result of a long term social process.
As a second step, we focus on energy dimension of the housing location choices. We base on a survey conducted through the Transenergy research (ANR). About forty semi-structured interviews were completed among households in home ownership. Whenever possible, we have tried to repeat these interviews at several times of the residential arbitration process in order to seize its evolution over time. This research is focused on localization strategies of the home buyers in Lyon and Lille. These strategies illustrate how people use the “energy criteria” in reality. Reportedly, daily mobilities due to the siting of housing are largely embedded in a complex needs solving process. Beyond localization and daily mobility, the households can change their routines and activities programs.
Instead of leading to a localization choice based on “energy criteria” assessed by labels, should we not prefer a public policy leading to a more personalized support when households move house? Why don’t we consider skills of energy information advisors and housing advisors (ADIL) for contributing to help households in their residential choice in a sustainable way ? Instead of narrowing the range of housing locations possibilities to a few theoretical criteria, we should deal with the full complexity, the variety, the temporalities of household’s daily mobilities and travel behaviors.
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KEY WORDS: Localisation résidentielle, critères énergétiques, mobilité quotidienne, enquête qualitative.
Understanding the strategies of households experiencing energy vulnerability in order to develop adapted public policies
Anne-Lise BENARD (démographe, Agence d’urbanisme de la région grenobloise)
Emmanuel BOULANGER (Directeur d’études habitat, Agence d’urbanisme de la région grenobloise)
A study on energy vulnerability in the French department of “Isère” was conducted by the Grenoble region urban planning agency in partnership with departmental council of Isère and « Ademe ».
The study is divided into two parts:
-The first part focuses on territorial aspects: Where are the vulnerable households? How many and who are they? What are the modifications on this analysis in case of an increase of energy prices? What kinds of actions are conducted by public authorities and associations to stop it?
-The second part focuses on sociological aspects: How households perceive energy prices? Do they feel threatened by the long-term evolution of energy prices?
The first part is based on energy simulations realized from data of INSEE and RAEE.
These data allow us to detect territories and households who are vulnerable to energy prices.
According to the Insee, 15% of the French households have difficulties to pay their heating bills and 10% are potentially in a situation of energy vulnerability because of their fuel consumption due to constrained urban transportation (job, shopping and health).
A few households are concerned by these two problems, becoming doubly vulnerable.
In order to complete this approach, a qualitative survey exploring energy consumption of vulnerable households was conducted.
This survey leads to a better understanding of the perception of the households on energy costs and the strategies deployed by them to decrease their energy budget (involving the residential and transportation needs).
Thirty interviews were conducted with middle-class households who are owners and who live in suburban areas or in Isère’s mountains.
First results show that households are proactive for developing strategies: installing a wood boiler, powered off electronics devices, roof insulation, using various and new ways of transportation (like carpooling), grouping activities on a trip …
However, households do not have a lot of flexibility to limit their consumption when they are confronted with increase in energy prices.
Another problem is linked to their owner status. Households are trapped because of the devaluation of their housing.
Nevertheless, selling their home is not a solution for them.
Public authorities should offer alternatives in relation with the household’s desires.
The solution may be to involve households as early as possible in public energy consumption policies.
KEY WORDS: residential lifestyles, mobility, house, residential strategies, energy consumption, vulnerability, qualitative research.