Mobility and lifestyles survey: the residents of Île-de-France want change!

On Tuesday, May 4, at La Cité Fertile in Pantin, the Mobile Lives Forum and the think tank La Fabrique Écologique gathered the leading candidates in the regional elections in Île-de-France to assess their positions. Ms AUTAIN and Ms PULVAR, Mr BARDELLA, Mr BAYOU, Mr SAINT-MARTIN as well as Mr BEAUDET (representing Ms PECRESSE), were invited to present their vision for the future of the territory.

So as to be able to debate residents’ new expectations in terms of lifestyles and mobility in Île-de-France, the Mobile Lives Forum conducted in mid-April a survey of 1,000 Île-de-France residents (representative sample). Mobility holds a central place in contemporary lifestyles, especially in Île-de-France where problems are longstanding (congestion, stress, saturated transport networks) and habits have been particularly shaken up by the health crisis. Immobility is now prescribed whenever possible and teleworking imposed on a significant number of Île-de-France residents, who more than ever before are questioning their living conditions in the region.

This survey shows that mobility, which is central to the region's jurisdictions, is a major concern to its inhabitants. During the debate on May 4, the candidates presented how they view the territory with regards to the challenges needing to be met in order to make life in the region pleasant and sustainable.

Main results:

• After the upheavals caused by the health crisis, the residents of Île-de-France want above all to enjoy greater flexibility in how they organize their work time (80% in favor) and to be able to continue teleworking (68% in favor). As of today, 2 in 3 workers are still teleworking at least one day a week.
• In the longer term, the residents of Île-de-France want activities and employment to be better distributed throughout the region (94% in favor).
• This would enable them to achieve their desire to work less than 15 minutes from home (55%), reduce their travel times (71%) and slow down the pace of their daily lives (74%).
• Finally, while the residents of Paris are generally more satisfied with their living environment than those of the inner or outer rings of suburbs, on average, half of all Île-de-France residents report a desire to move.
• Among those who actually want to leave the region, 81% don’t want to move to another metropolis, instead preferring to relocate to medium or small towns, or even to the countryside.

The results in detail:

A widely shared desire for change: three quarters of Île-de-France residents aspire to slow down

Following the heavy constraints imposed on their mobility and lifestyles during this extraordinary period, a large majority of residents of Île-de-France are now considering profound changes for “life after Covid.” After a year of greatly limited and constrained movements, three-quarters of Île-de-France residents aspire to lead slower paced lives and to have greater control over their schedules (74%). This would enable them to devote more time to their loved ones as well as to themselves.

Towards a 15-minute city? Half of all Île-de-France residents wish to work less that 15 minutes from home

The residents of Île-de-France are calling for a more local life which would allow their activities to be deployed within their neighborhood (77%). Furthermore, they want to spend less time in transport than before the crisis (71%). This desire grows even stronger as the academic level of respondents increases.

One in two residents of Île-de-France would like to be able to work less than 15 minutes from home. A third even want to be able to walk to work or work from home.

After the health crisis, a new way of organizing work times and workplaces: 2/3 of Île-de-France residents want to telework at least one day per week

The health crisis radically changed the daily lives of millions of workers in Île-de-France and continues to do so. This survey, conducted in mid-April, bears witness to this: 66% of workers still telework at least one day a week. 28% even telework full time.

For the future beyond the crisis, they want more flexibility in how they organize their work time (80%) as well as the ability to practice teleworking on a more regular basis: two-thirds of employed workers want to be able to work from home at least one day per week or from another location close to home. Unsurprisingly, we find that those who are currently practising telework are much more in favor of seeing its practice perpetuated (80% in favor) than those who are not currently teleworking (42% in favor). Here again, we find that these two aspirations related to work organization become more important as the educational levels of the respondents increases.

The residents of Île-de-France are split with regards to their living environment

The residents of Paris itself are generally more satisfied with their current living environment than those living in the inner and outer rings of suburbs: 68% of Parisians report being satisfied with where they currently live (even if they have to move house) compared to 50% in the inner ring of suburbs and 55% in the outer ring.

By the same token, the desire to move away from the region is less present among Parisians than among those living in its suburbs: only 22% of Parisians want to leave the region compared to 31% in the inner suburbs and 34% in the outer suburbs.

Among the residents of Île-de-France who want to leave the region, there is a widely shared desire to move away from an urban environment entirely: 81% of them don’t want to move to another metropolis or to its suburbs. In fact, 57% of them report wanting to settle in a small town, a village or in the countryside.

9 out of 10 residents of Île-de-France support measures that would increase the balance between private and professional lives and limit transport times

The residents of Île-de-France are enthusiastic about the measures proposed in this survey, to an unexpectedly high degree.

First of all, they strongly support the process of depolarizing activities, employment and services in order to distribute them more evenly throughout the entire territory (94%). In fact, almost half reported being strongly in favor of this, which reflects significant support for such a measure.

Almost 9 in 10 residents of Île-de-France are also in favor of measures put forth to allow a greater balance between private life and professional life and to lower their commute times - these measures being teleworking and flexible working hours (38% are strongly in favor).

Finally, the proposal which aims to establish a complete system combining public transport, walking and cycling - making it possible to limit the use of cars (which is traditionally not a very popular measure) - was supported by over 80% of Île-de-France residents. However, of these, only 32% reported being strongly in favor of such a proposal, the lowest rate of all the measures.

The survey method:

Survey carried out by BECOMING for the MOBILE LIVES FORUM from April 5 to April 13, 2021, among 1004 residents of Île-de-France, selected to be a representative sample in terms of gender, age, socio-professional category and department (administrative subdivision) by using a quota method. Respondents were questioned via an online panel survey.

Download the full results (in French only)

Mobility

For the Mobile Lives Forum, mobility is understood as the process of how individuals travel across distances in order to deploy through time and space the activities that make up their lifestyles. These travel practices are embedded in socio-technical systems, produced by transport and communication industries and techniques, and by normative discourses on these practices, with considerable social, environmental and spatial impacts.

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Teleworking

The remote performance of a salaried activity outside of the company’s premises, at home or in a third place during normal working hours and requiring access to telecommunication tools.

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