"It couldn't last!
Many regulars on the Ile-de-France roads, who have been taking advantage of exceptional traffic conditions and a virtual absence of traffic jams since the start of the year, feel that this period of improvement ended in the first days of February.
An impression, after two years of health crisis, confinements, traffic restrictions and reduction in traffic which would have lowered the “tolerance threshold” for traffic jams for road users?
"No, this is an observation", indicates the Dirif (Direction des routes d'Île-de-France), which announces, with supporting figures, the gradual resumption of traffic on the major regional axes and on the ringroad.
The Dirif agents analyzed the data on the accumulation of traffic jams (available in real time on the Sytadin traffic information service) noted on Monday January 31, Tuesday February 1 and Wednesday February 2 and compared them with the data recorded at same days, three weeks earlier.
Lifting of the telework obligation
Result: with a few rare exceptions, the curve of the levels of traffic jams observed at the beginning of February overhangs (and sometimes very high) that of the traffic jams noted in mid-January.
The Dirif thus identified 150 km of cumulative traffic jams on Monday January 31 at the evening rush hour against "only" 100 km of traffic jams at the same time on Monday January 10.
The next day, Tuesday February 1, with a total of 400 km of traffic jams observed during the morning rush hour (i.e. 250 km more than 3 weeks earlier), the level of slowdown even approached the record for traffic jams ( 450 km) for a Tuesday morning.
Finally, on Wednesday February 2, the date on which the obligation to telecommute at least 2 days a week was lifted, the morning traffic jams stretched over no less than 250 km.
There were 110 less three weeks earlier!
“The February 1 traffic jam record may not be significant since it was raining a lot that day and there were many accidents on the network”, nuances the Dirif.
“But, overall, the accumulation of traffic jams today tends to return to the level of its usual values
(those before the health crisis)
at the morning rush hour”, however notes the Dirif.
The accumulation of traffic jams recorded on February 4 (black curve) exceeded the average level of Friday traffic jams (blue curve), during the morning rush hour as well as during the evening rush hour.
DR
It is difficult to determine right now whether this trend will be confirmed, or even amplified, with the less frequent use of telework… As for transport analysts, it is recalled that working from home is no longer compulsory but remains strongly recommended.
The partial return to the "face-to-face" rule could therefore only have a limited effect on the use of the various transport networks.
The public transport offer almost 100% of its normal level
In the public transport networks, the latest available attendance figures show in any case that we are still very far from “returning to normal”.
On the SNCF Transilien and RER network as on the RATP rail network, operators recorded, in January 2022, passenger traffic equivalent to 65% of that of January 2019. “At the beginning of February, we went to 70% normal traffic, “says IDFM (Île-de-France Mobilités).
The regional transport regulatory authority, which had asked operators to reduce the number of trains, RER, trams, metros, or buses in circulation to adapt to the drastic drop in attendance at the height of the crisis, indicates that the supply of available transport has now returned to 98% of its normal level.
“There are meetings every week to find out if this offer should be readjusted according to the level of attendance.
For now, it is more than enough.
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