The way to go - Eysines

Contact : Anaïs Lefranc-Morin

I. The research

How to instill a culture of walking - combined with public transport - in an area dominated by the automobile?

Walking remains the poor relation of transport. As it tends to be associated with leisure and/or a slower pace, it lacks credibility as compared to other modes. The car and tramway still prevail for many users in daily life for various reasons (fatigue, habit, ease, etc.). The Mobile Lives Forum wanted to explore the premise that walking, often overlooked as a mode of travel, could – when combined with public transport – provide relevant solutions to the challenges faced by transport operators and communities (i.e. traffic, pollution, underuse of public transport at the end of lines, etc.), as well as commuters’ desires in terms of physical activity and urban experience.

The Marche à Suivre project, led by Lucas Delafosse and Stéphane Malek, with support from Keolis and l'Agence d'urbanisme de Bordeaux métropole Aquitaine, aimed to promote walking for short distances in greater Bordeaux. Launched in June 2013, the experiment ran from mid-September to November 2104 in Eysines, a suburban town in northwest Bordeaux. The goal was to reduce systematic car use in favor of trips that combined walking and public transport – in other words, an important change in travel practices.

The testing ground was a part of the Vigean neighborhood in Eysines, an area with an ample public transport offer that includes two main radial bus lines (the 2 and 5) providing direct, reliable, fast service to the city center, a ring road line (the 35) and more specific local service (the 72), the latter two of which run with much less frequency. Yet the modal share for public transport is very low (less than 10%), as the majority of trips are made by car (roughly 80% of the modal share).

The researchers revealed the neighborhood’s potential by creating links between places. The challenge was twofold: to highlight the various travel options afforded by public transport at different levels of the city, and to help people (re)discover a little-known, seldom explored neighborhood via a short daily walk.

The assumption was that it was possible to challenge individuals’ habits through a simple and original experiment. The two researchers see walking not only as an efficient mode of transport, but also as a bodily experience in a sensitive relationship with the environment (i.e. the city). Acting on how we perceive an area and its potential in terms of travel is the core of an approach that aims to encourage a change in practices designed to favor walking. Beyond creating spatial landmarks and spreading information about the public transport network, the team decided to focus on residents’ involvement through the creation of urban furniture, participatory workshops and events at the neighborhood level.

L’expérimentation Marche à suivre s'est également déployée à Bordeaux selon d'autres modalités : vous pouvez découvrir ici ce projet.

II. Results

A) Come take part in the experiment in Eysines with Otto and Ruth!

A short animated film presents Marche à suivre with Otto and Ruth, during their weekly walk.

B) What was the outcome at the end of the experiment?

In Eysines, the plan, which centered on bus stations, put forth the question of walking in an area characterized by intensive car use on the agenda. It launched a local dynamic that opened up prospects for changing travel behavior. Stay tuned!

C) From process to results: project summary

A project logbook retraces the entire process - from the initial line of questioning (p.5) to the results (p. 22) - and includes a review of the literature and walking-related initiatives (p. 7), the field investigation phase (p.12) and the design of the experiment (p. 16). Possible courses of action are described in the conclusion (p. 26).

III. Documents and reports

Going further: about the project

Phase 1: a review of the literature and initiatives

The first research phase consisted of an overview on walking: what do we learn from the scientific literature? What initiatives can we identify to promote walking? How can this fuel the Marche à suivre experiment’s design? What is the role of walking in the travel habits of greater Bordeaux residents?

To find out, download:

• The phase 1 summary report
  

• The benchmarking of walking promotion initiatives
  

Phase 2: field survey

The field survey was designed to closely consider the specificities of the experimental field. The goal was to analyze the project territory based on an urban and landscape diagnostic, as well as a behavioral diagnostic based on in-depth interviews (to gauge modal choices), travel behaviors and the spatial imaginaries of tramway users.

You can download:

• the compiled spatial and landscape impressions
  

• the findings of the behavioral diagnostic
  

Phase 3: setting up the experiment

To understand the field experiment, watch the “Pendant l’expérimentation à Bordeaux” report and browse through the panels and flyers in digital format.

• Eysines video: From idea to experiment
  
  

• Dossier zip avec tous les panneaux, flyers
  
  
  

Phase 4: Evaluation

The experiment led to an evaluation from which lessons for research and action could be learned. The field survey resulted in an analysis of the plan’s success and proposals for action.

Download the evaluation report here:

• evaluation report
  

IV. The actors

A) Why did they get involved in Marche à suivre? The actors speak

Christine Bost , Mayor of Eysines: “The goal is to reduce the impact of the car on our city.”

Bernard Emsellem , President of the Mobile Lives Forum: We need to make walking a means of travel.

Eric Chareyron , Marketing director of Keolis, and Paul Chaperon , Marketing Director of Bordeaux: “There’s a strong interaction between walking, living well in a place and public transport.”

Jean-Marc Offner , CEO of A’urba, and Jean-Christophe Chadanson , urban planner for A’urba: “We must move toward a logic of inviting individuals to change for themselves.”

Lucas Delafosse , landscaper, and Stéphane Malek , planner-landscaper: “Marche à Suivre is an original, light and temporary development project.”

B) Institutional partners

a’urba (agence d’urbanisme Bordeaux métropole Aquitaine): This public agency is the strategic tool for regional development in the city of Bordeaux. It is responsible for urban planning and helps local governments to carry out their urban development projects. It is active at all scales, from neighborhoods to metropolitan systems.

A public corporation for gray matter, the agency assists local authorities in developing and implementing projects and public policies by shedding light on, providing perspective regarding and taking measure of the socio-economic and spatial dynamics that are changing frameworks and lifestyles. For the sake of coherence of collective action, it facilitates the dialogue between public and private city actors.

L’a-urba leads observatories, disseminates urban culture, participates in planning procedures, proposes strategic initiatives and works to develop prospective thinking.

To find out more, go to: www.aurba.org

Keolis : This subsidiary of the SNCF group provides urban and interurban transport solutions (tramways, buses, subways, shuttles, etc.) in France and worldwide.

Keolis is the only actor to be present throughout the entire mobility chain and to combine soft and heavy modes (subways, buses, tramways, bikes, car sharing and water shuttles) with parking facilities (park and ride facilities and parking lots).

Adapting the transport supply, streamlining urban transport, promoting citizen transport and creating true complementarity between different modes of transport are all imperatives that guide Keolis Bordeaux in its management of metropolitan Bordeaux’s public transport network (Tbc) for the urban community of Bordeaux. With 125 million trips in 2013, the Tbc network promotes the region’s attractiveness while minimizing the energy and environmental impacts of travel by users. The Tbc network increases the possibility of connections between different modes of transport, allowing individuals to build personalized “mobility solutions.”

To find out more, go to: www.keolis.com

V. News

Project blog

A blog allows you to follow the team’s progress in the field. marcheasuivre.forumviesmobiles.org

Press Review

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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Car sharing

Car sharing is the pooling of one or several vehicles for different trips at different times. Three types of car sharing exist: commercial car sharing, peer-to-peer car sharing and “informal” sharing between individuals.

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