Every morning for several days, Frédéric and Jean-Philippe insisted on arriving at the office, exhausted by the two hours they each have just spent in traffic jams: “Yes!
There are more traffic jams than before the Covid, it is not possible otherwise!
Julie too, on the metro platform last Thursday, gives up getting on the train in front of so many people standing: "I'm waiting for the next one."
I even hesitate to start working from home until there are fewer people, ”she sighs.
20 kilometers more traffic jams on average during rush hour
Since the lifting of restrictions, Ile-de-France residents have returned to the office.
But they seem more numerous than before the crisis to go there instead by car.
According to data from the Parisien data service, since May 25, there have been 20 kilometers (km) of traffic jams more on average during peak hours compared to 2019, on the Francilien network managed by the Direction des Routes d'Ile- de-France (Sytadin).
The increase in congestion varies from day to day.
On Wednesday morning, we even notice 84 km more than in 2019. Tuesday morning, 30 km more.
This increase is mainly explained by the shift towards individual modes of transport - bicycle and car - rather than metro.
Because even if Julie sighs in front of the seats which have disappeared, attendance is still only 60% of that it was before the health crisis.
On Friday, Ile-de-France residents also seem to be more likely to want to escape the region, with 40 km of additional traffic jams during the evening rush hour in 2021 (329 km) compared to 2019 (288 km).
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At the margin, work in inner Paris can also cause some congestion.
Sylvie says she took more than a quarter of an hour, at the beginning of the week, to drive from Concorde to the Madeleine, because of the works to repave the surrounding streets.
The reduction in the space given to the car on the road does not promote the fluidity of vehicles either.
The accumulation of traffic jams is lower than a normal situation for Sytadin
But overall, the rise is not a blast.
There are even fewer traffic jams on Tuesday and Wednesday evening in 2021, compared to 2019. The Ile-de-France road management confirms this: “We have observed an increase in the number of kilometers of traffic jams accumulated since the 3 May ”, with between“ 1% and 3% ”in addition.
But "the accumulation of traffic jams is lower than a" normal "situation in 2019 during the morning rush hour, it is equivalent to the evening rush hour" and "comparable to that observed before March 22, 2021"
.
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And if quite simply, these traffic jams, this feeling of increased promiscuity were also explained by the refusal of a return to the world before?
The refusal of the frantic transport conditions that we no longer suffered?
For a year and a half, Ile-de-France residents have experienced more reasonable travel times.
We managed to pass the 3rd on the highways even at 8 o'clock in the morning.
You could choose between a window or a corridor in the metro.
And then suddenly the world came back.
And these irritants, which we had hoped never to see again, suddenly seem insurmountable: “I haven't experienced it for a year and a half.
I wonder how I'm going to put up with it again, ”wonders Amandine.
71% of Ile-de-France residents want to reduce their travel time
For the historian Arnaud Passalacqua, “we already noticed before the health crisis, the weak signals of an affirmation of individualization and the refusal of the crowd. For example, the decline towards modes such as the scooter or the bicycle, the fact that line 13 had become unbearable ”. For him, the Covid (19 has only "revealed this phenomenon and accelerated it. Public transport is one of the expressions of the industrial city. And if you don't get used to it, it's because you calls into question these multimillionaire metropolises
(Editor's note: in population)
. "
In the “mobility and lifestyles” survey carried out by the Vie Mobile think tank carried out in April 2021: 94% of Ile-de-France residents expect post-crisis activities and employment to be better distributed throughout the region. This would allow them to work closer to home, less than 15 minutes as desired by 55% of those questioned, to reduce their travel time (71%) and to slow down their daily pace of life (74%). Still according to the same study, nearly nine in ten Ile-de-France residents are also in favor of the measures envisaged to better balance private and professional life and limit the heavy transport time in Ile-de-France: teleworking and flexible working hours (38 % are very supportive).
Since the lifting of restrictions, Ile-de-France residents themselves still seem to be groping their way around their new habits. Sytadin curves vary radically from day to day. “Indeed, confirms Frédéric. Even leaving at 3pm, I sometimes find myself in traffic jams. "" It's too early to know if nothing will change or if nothing will be the same again, tempers Jean-Pascal Assailly, psychologist and specialist in road safety. The development of teleworking could disrupt habits. Many Parisians have also sold their apartments to get back to nature. The question is whether this will continue. “Transport operators have anticipated the response. They are only counting on 80% attendance by the end of fall 2021.