EXCEPT AMONGST “EXPERTS”, THE ENERGY QUESTION IS ONLY RARELY ASSOCIATED – SPONTANEOUSLY—WITH THE TRANSPORTATION SECTOR. HOWEVER, COMPARED TO OTHER SECTORS, WHOSE PARTS IN TOTAL ENERGY CONSUMPTION ARE STAGNATING (44.5% IN BUILDING, THAT IS +2% BETWEEN 1973 AND 2012) OR DIMINISHING (21%, IN INDUSTRY, THAT IS -15% BETWEEN 1973 AND 2012), THE PART OF THE TRANSPORTATION SECTOR CONTINUES TO GROW RAPIDLY (32%, THAT IS +12% OVER THE SAME PERIOD) (1) . IF THE FIELD OF TECHNOLOGY REMAINS AT THE CUTTING EDGE, NOTABLY THROUGH THE CONCEPTION OF VEHICLES WITH REDUCED CO2 EMISSIONS, CONSIDERATIONS LINKED TO THE ORGANIZATIONAL ASPECTS OF TRANSPORTATION, TO TRAVELING HABITS OR EVEN TO POLICIES ENCOURAGING ALTERNATIVE TRANSPORTATION ARE A LARGER PART OF THE CURRENT DEBATE.
In what ways have mobility practices evolved and can they be a way to reduce energy consumption? Under what conditions, encouraging people to take advantage of modal solutions (mass transportation, soft methods – sustainable transport) or organizational (carpooling) alternatives to the individual car is the general public receptive, notably the more restrictive in terms of traveling or of geographical location? The question of level is also raised and the modalities of putting into practice territorial traveling policies that consume less energy. What are the roles and the responsibilities of elected officials in the debate? New services (auto/bicycle in self-service, parking/ public transportation), economic and fiscal (ecological tax, price indicators…), the possibilities for intervention are multiple. What are the effects on human organizations? At the same time, inside companies, the policies of reducing the ecological and energy impact also pass by incentives to use alternatives models, written in the business’s mobility plan. How are these policies conceived and put into action in companies, and how are they perceived by the social actors who are no longer involved only as citizens, but also as employees to act toward a reduction of their consumption of energy and, more generally, to change their individual and collective habits?
In situations of energy precarity, the questions of lodging and mobility are strongly linked. Where are we in the discussion about the compromises made by households between lodging and transportation? How, in this analysis, to distinguish between forced mobility and chosen mobility? In what way are the injunctions of alternative transportation pertinent for those groups suffering from energy precarity ?
(1) Chiffres clés de l’énergie, Repères, Service de l’observation et des statistiques, Commissariat Général au développement Durable, february 2014.