At the end of the afternoon, many passengers are waiting at the Lane carpooling stop in the Mermoz district, in Lyon: weekend eve obliges, weekend BlaBlaCar users take advantage of this meeting point. designed for everyday carpoolers, who share their home-to-work journeys through the Lane network.
Under the bright orange bus shelter, Céline waits for a driver to take her home about thirty kilometers southeast of Lyon.
“Before, I took my car alone to come to work.
For the past two years, I have been using the service two to three times a week.”
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Set up in 2018 by the company Ecov in partnership with local authorities, this carpooling line connects Villefontaine and Bourgoin-Jallieu, in northern Isère, to Saint-Priest and Lyon.
The principle of the service, operational at peak times, is as follows: no reservation, the passenger goes to the stop and can indicate his destination on the application.
The driver shares his journey and picks up the candidates, indicated at the stop by a luminous panel.
"On average, the waiting time is less than 4 minutes
," says Camille Beauchamp, project manager at Ecov.
Beyond 20 minutes, the service provides an Uber: a departure guarantee which aims to
“remove the reluctance of users”.
If Lane does not aim to compete with the train, he also picks up rail disappointed like Sylviane, harassed by the repeated delays
The bet is working: the network, which has 11,500 subscribers, resumed its post-Covid growth: in March, it broke all records with 1,800 trips.
"There are a lot of new ones at the moment
," confirms Sylviane, a fan of the service, who is about to return to Bourgoin-Jallieu.
A boost to which the increase in fuel is probably not unrelated.
A free Uber offered after a 20-minute wait
For drivers, the financial lever remains the central motivation, the system being attractive: the passenger pays nothing, the driver receives 1 euro per shared trip and 2 euros per person transported.
“That's clearly what motivated me
,” admits Florian, Céline's driver, also reassured by the local aspect of the network, which is more
“reassuring”
.
But if Lane does not aim to compete with the train, he also picks up disappointed railroaders like Sylviane, harassed by the repeated delays.
"In addition, the stop is a 6-minute walk from my work, I no longer have to take the metro when I arrive in Lyon."
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His driver for the day, Yann, says he is sensitive to
the “environmental aspect”
and appreciates the
“friendliness”
of these journeys.
"The social bond is a bonus,"
adds Céline.
It remains to develop the service on other lines.
"I have plenty of colleagues who would like to have the same system in their city!"
, concludes Sylviane before boarding.
A possibility that the metropolis of Lyon is considering, according to Camille Beauchamp.