Employees Transport Plans : what do working populations expect from transportation? Following recent laws organizing urban land planning and transport planning in France, some companies have implemented employees transport plans. Such plans are often initiated by concrete mobility problems, especially parking constraints. They concern all the fields of mobility management for the travels related to the company activity. There is little exploitable data in France to evaluate such actions. Yet, the technical studies of employees transport plans include diagnosis analysis and participative action to implement solutions. The studies can produce two kinds of data : quantitative results about mobility behaviours, needs of the end-users of the transport network, interpretative data describing how people represent the transport supply. Analysing these elements might lead to improve public transport (PT) supply for workers transportation needs. Indeed, this population has not yet been an usual target group for PT marketing until recently. This paper will summarize several employees transport plan studies led by Altermodal since early 2002, in Lyon and : France Telecom Lyon (2002 2003), Grand Lyon (2003 2004), CEA, (2002 2003), Echirolles City Hall (2002-2003), hospital (2003). Ecomm 2004 page 1
First, we will present the urban context of the studied transport plans. Then, we will organize a thematic synthesis of the produced data, regarding the following topics : how do the working populations use the public transport network? what do working populations expect from public transport? 1. The urban contexts 1.1. Lyon sites : urban central district favouring PT and walking The studied sites in Lyon are both located in the central district of Part-Dieu, close to the main railway station. Public transport services are excellent : some 65% of the urban population is located within 45 min. by public transport from the Part-Dieu area. The urban shape makes walking quite enjoyable, while biking is clearly not yet favoured by the street equipment. There is a possible fare reduction on public transport (30 % or 50 %), provides the company is committed in an employees transport plan and is involved in funding. 1.2. The three study sites in are located at the edge of the central area, with very attractive PT services (tramway). Yet they are all easily accessible by car, for they are located very close to the highway network. Walking is not favoured by the low urban density at these places. But is known as a well-fitted town for biking, and all the sites are served by attractive equipment for cycling. There is a possible fare reduction of 33% for employees, provided the company is involved in any form of transport planning approach. Ecomm 2004 page 2
2. How do working populations use the public transport network? 2.1. Public transport and daily routines The mobility surveys achieved in the companies staff show that car is always over-used for home to work trips, mostly to the detriment of PT in, biking and cycling in Lyon. The modal splits seem to be rather representative of the average working population in the concerned areas. 100% 90% 80% 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% CEA Echirolles City Hall Hospital average modal split (1992) France Telecom Lyon Grand Lyon Lyon average modal split (1995) Public Transport Car Walking and biking Fig.1. Modal split amongst employees compared with average urban modal splits Public transport is especially under used in the sites, for they are situated at the edge of the well served public transport area. It must be underlined that such surveys tend to be affected by a significant bias : people favourable to the car are less likely to answer, while it seems easier to mobilise PT customers. For the Grand Lyon study, the survey data has been compared with parking counts. It appeared that the car modal split was underestimated in the survey by 25%. Another study in Marseille showed that the rate could raise to 50%. Nevertheless, Ecomm 2004 page 3
uncorrected survey results can provide useful information for evaluation, by comparison means. Still any type of exhaustive data proves useful to complete survey analysis. Professional trips are even more affected by the overuse of the car. Yet, most of these trips are concerned with the urban area, well served by the public transport network, with few objective constraints to justify the use of a car. 2.2. Residence localisation : a high potential for PT 90% 80% 70% 60% Part of the population residing in the urban area Part of the population residing in the central urban district 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% CEA Echirolles City Hall hospital FT Lyon Grand Lyon Fig. Resident localisations The part of the population residing in the urban area, the most accessible for the public transports customers, vary from 50% to 80%. This ratio is a key element when analysing the potentiality of the PT networks. When comparing the residential localisations with the relevant accessibility zones for public transport (i.e. the area with trips less than 45 min. long), it is possible to evaluate the potential customers. This analysis shows that it would theoretically be possible to double the actual customers (see fig. below). Ecomm 2004 page 4
900 800 Customers Potential customers 700 600 500 400 300 200 100 0 Grand Lyon France Telecom Lyon CHU CEA Ville d'echirolles Fig. Customers and potential customers When analysing the modals splits compared to the home localisation, two main elements proves obvious : many workers choose the train rather than the car for home to work trips when residing out of the urban area, many workers residing inside the central urban districts tend to choose the car when parking facilities are present at work. The first element is clearly linked to the favourable fare policy for working population (up to 75% reduction on subscriptions). So, even if the PT service is not reliable enough, attractive fares might convince a significant part of the population. The second is especially sizeable in Lyon ; the car trips inside the central district area are less affected by congestion problems than trips from the peripheral areas. Thus, the parking supply is the only regulating element to lower the car competitiveness for such trips. Ecomm 2004 page 5
3. Understanding workers mobility logics 3.1. Some explanations to the diagnosis What are the main reasons of this bad score for public transport amongst the working population? Three hypothesis can be combined : employers usually favours the car, there is an imbalance between public transport services and fares for workers, public transport is not identified as a service for workers 3.1.1. The actual working context strongly encourages driving For historical and social reasons, most employers have provided their employees with free parking facilities. The quantitative and qualitative data from the surveys show that the parking supply is one of the main determinants of the workers mobility behaviours. The figure below, with data from our examples, tend to illustrate this phenomenon. % of PT for home to work journeys 35% 30% 25% 20% 15% 10% 5% 25% 45% 65% 85% Parking supply related to the population Ecomm 2004 page 6
Moreover, some employees are provided with duty cars, which means that the home to work costs are supported by the employers. In such cases, there is no reason for the employee to call into question his own transportation. The studied companies budget dedicated to the car (only to support home to work trips) have been estimated to an average of 1.000 / year / employee. The overall amount is certainly not negligible at a whole urban scale, whereas direct PT funding from the companies is still extremely low, or even nonexistent. Lastly, the French tax system gives advantages to the workers who use the car for long home to work trips (mostly from 20 km return). 3.2. Public transport services and fares It is obvious that the working context strongly unbalances the choice between public transport and the car. But even for those who are not that concerned with those advantages, public transport organisation is not clearly shaped to encourage workers. Workers note a lack of quality in the public transport network, when comparing it to the fares : Ecomm 2004 page 7
100% 80% Cost 60% 40% Network 20% Speed 0% Grand Lyon FT Lyon CEA CHU Ville d'echirolles First, subscriptions prove to be profitable from 20 (Lyon) to 24 () return journeys every month. Now, it is known that trips to work tend to shape mobility routines, even they only represent a third of the overall mobility. The actual fares tend to favour occasional use of public transport. Second, work to home trips tend to be more and more complex, combining journeys to school, or shopping. Yet the public transport system has long been conceived taking into account population, the number of jobs, of pupils, in a travel logic. Chaining of activities including access to services is not yet included in public transport modelling. 3.3. Is public transport corresponding to workers demand? Last, workers often complain about a lack of reliability and a lack of regularity from public transport. Work is deeply associated with a notion of constraint, and every new constraint concerning home to work trips is badly perceived by the potential customer. They use to quote a lack of respect of the schedules, a lack of information to the customers, the inability to provide alternative solutions in case of perturbation. They are Ecomm 2004 page 8
also badly affected by the strikes, and the spacing out of the services during school holidays. This situation leads to two principal problems : an objective brake, daily routines are difficult to associate to public transport, a subjective brake, public transport is represented as transportation for nonworkers. This quite bad representation of public transport amongst the working population is welldescribed by a worker s remark : we are asked to commit in using public transport all year long, whereas the public transport network can not commit itself to a regular service over the year. 4. Consequences The combination of the three structural explanations easily enables people to justify habits linked to the car instead of the public transport. But developing habits is a powerful saving strategy for individuals, especially concerning home to work trips. Changing mobility habits requires a strong investment, and even some real risks. Thus, many people have been out of touch from the public transport supply characteristics. It might be really difficult for them to question their habits, provided the car trips remain quite attractive. We have shown that according to the workers, even the trips which only concern the urban network are difficult to plan because of the lack of reliability and regularity. But more complex trips, concerning two types of networks or more, are nearly impossible to plan at a year scale: it is not infrequent to face complex but rather attractive public transport links which require several hours of analysis only to build a home to work timetable. Ecomm 2004 page 9
Such an organisation is often almost impossible to plan for more complex, improvised activity patterns. Today, the car often appears as the only transport mode able to mix routine strategies with the opportunities requirements which are at the basis of urban life. This analysis tends to lead to the following conclusions: First, mobility management must lead to offensive actions concerning the advantages granted to the car. Meanwhile, participation of the companies to lower the PT fares for their staff will certainly attract new customers, even if the PT services temporally remain poor. Companies committed to such methods should be valued, or even granted for their action. Second, the workers expectations must be taken into account in the ambitious actual transport policies. We (experts, operators, authorities, employers) must be convinced that the public transport supply is not adapted yet to the working population requirements, and should aim at understanding mobility logics and transport expectations. Ecomm 2004 page 10