impact Tag

VERTONE reviews the 5 main user trends that have a strong impact on current and future mobility.

Mobility has been strongly impacted by the health crisis and the landscape has come out of it in a lasting way, reinvented. Furthermore, the transport sector (mainly road transport) is responsible for the majority of CO2 emissions in the world. The relationship of the French with transport is changing, as the Mobility Observatory shows: in 2020, more than 30% of users said they wanted to change their daily travel habits, giving up common transport once they had overcome the health crisis.

However, sustainable alternatives to individual modes are a true ecological asset to reduce the carbon footprint of our trips. These social trends represent a challenge for all actors of sustainable mobility in France.

1/ Demobility and lasting decrease in the use of public transport

Successive lockdowns have led the French to adopt new travel habits and limit them in duration (see article) : home deliveries, teleworking, need for flexibility, short notice… These changes in use have caused a 30% reduction in the use of public transport, which will probably not return to pre-Covid levels in the short term.

This phenomenon of demobilization was accompanied by a modal shift important for individual means of transport such as the bicycle or the automobile, and of a phenomenon of abandonment of urban areassince 23% of the French plan to leave the cities in the coming years.

Another phenomenon that accompanies the digitization of work (a prerequisite for telecommuting) is the digitization of tickets. This was already underway long before the health crisis and the latter accelerated it. In fact, some operators have redesigned their distribution model (see article on the economic model of m-ticketing). This allows us to satisfy users’ needs for flexibility and offer them prices that are as close as possible to their needs, such as pay-per-use.

2/ An increase in soft mobility

The development of cycling has been a fundamental trend in the last 20 years. But the strikes, and especially the health crisis, have gained new followers, with the bicycle being seen both as a true “barrier gesture” and as an ecological means of transport. We see a strong modal shift towards cycling in 2020, as cycle paths have seen an increase of up to +27% in their use, and more specifically in Paris, where we see an increase of +47% between 2019 and 2020, and another + 22% between 2020 and 2021.

In addition, the bicycle is one of the soft modes that best adapts to intermodality with public transport. This is facilitated by the entry into force of the decree of 01/19/2021, which leads to the development of spaces for bicycles on trains, as well as the development of bicycle racks on urban buses.

In addition to the health security offered by this mode of transport, the positive impact on the carbon footprint, speed and cost are motivations for new cyclists (see article on the bicycle boom). However, there are disparities in use in France (2% of users in Paris compared to 15% in Strasbourg, for example) but also on a European scale, leaving France with a large margin of progress compared to its neighbors (in Germany, the bicycle represents around 10% of the modal share). Thus, more and more policies and incentives (bicycle plan, Climate and Resilience Law, etc.) allow setting strong objectives to realign our uses with those of other European countries. To support and accelerate the development of cycling, the City of Paris notably adopted a new Cycling Plan 2021-2026 last November. Its goal is to make Paris 100% cycling by developing the “cycling culture”, thanks to investments of 250 million euros, that is, an additional 100 million compared to the first plan that expired in 2020.

3/ Still strong automotive competition

Although soft mobility is booming with a good number of French people, only 14% of them are considering bike or walk more often to get to the office.

In fact, more than two-thirds of trips home or to work are made by car, and this has been aggravated by the health crisis (15% of French people say they use the car more to get around).

The strong use of the private car is explained, in particular, by the absence of alternatives outside the centers and the periphery: 55% of the French declare not being able to choose your means of transport daily, because public transport is absent or not adapted to needs, as in many white areas of mobility in French territory.

In response to growing questions about the use of individual cars and their impact on the environment, some players are envisioning new business models around the world. Vehicle as a Service (simplified rental services) favoring the use of the property. In addition, manufacturers are now betting on technological innovations to offer alternatives to the thermal engine and for this two technologies are competing: 100% electric vehicles (see article on charging stations) and fuel cell vehicles that run on hydrogen (see article on the role of hydrogen in the mobility of tomorrow).

4/ Awareness of environmental problems

For the first time since the beginning of the Ipsos surveys on the concerns of the Frenchthe weather comes first for 42% of them, ahead of purchasing power, the health system and employment. These priorities were felt at the polls, by the “green” wave during the last elections European (where the ecologists went from 52 to 70 seats); Then during municipal elections in June 2020 (see our analysis of the challenges of sustainable mobility through candidate programmes).

These concerns are conveyed by various regulations and obligations for the sustainable mobility sector: for example, local authorities are obliged to build a climate plan in which all the levers implemented to reduce GHG emissions are highlighted, especially in the field of transport.

5/ AWARENESS ON THE ISSUES OF Solidarity and accessibility

In 2005, the law for equal rights and opportunities, participation and citizenship of people with disabilities, highlighted the importance and need for guarantee access to public services and public transport for people with disabilities.

The main objectives of these public policies have not yet been fully achieved in France: for example, the diversity quotas of companies have not been validated, and the same applies to the accessibility of public transport. Thus, in Paris, only 3% of metro stations are fully accessible for people with reduced mobility.

However, the regulations are changing to encourage the use of public transport by people with reduced mobility. Since 2017, the Mobility Inclusion card has provided benefits to facilitate travel for the elderly or disabled. For its part, in 2021, the Ile-de-France region developed new price offers (free, half price) for companions of people with disabilities.

In addition, public opinion is informed and is increasingly aware of the problems of inclusion of people with reduced mobility or people with visual disabilities. The numerous testimonies shared and the outraged comments on social networks demonstrate the sensitivity of users to the inaccessibility of the Paris metro, or much more widely of public transport and public places.

These five major developments in the world of transport testify to a structural transformation of mobility, towards softer modes (with the increased use of cycle paths in particular), more inclusive (thanks to the awareness of the challenges for people with reduced mobility in particular) and also more accessible to all throughout the territory (fighting against white mobility zones for example).

The changes in uses, the contraction of the market and the increase in competition between modes of transport call into question the needs of the AOM, as well as the model and dimensioning of the offers proposed by carriers (cf. article on responses to the call for proposals in transport).

In a future article, VERTONE will share the 5 developments favored by public policies and recent regulatory developments.

An article written by

The impact of Amazon Mexico in the country has caused the prices of products and services in physical stores to decrease throughout the national territory, according to a study carried out by the College of Mexico (Colmex), which highlights that with the arrival of e-commerce giant has generated more competition.

Since its launch, Amazon has increased its selection of products available to customers in Mexico by more than 150%, which in the update represents an offer of more than 45 million items unique, and with his presence Amazon has fostered competition in the retail industrygenerating a decrease of up to 28% in the prices of goods and services such as clothing and furniture in physical stores.

Impact of Amazon Mexico has generated a reduction in prices

The e-commerce giant I arrived in the country in 2015 and, since then, it has lowered prices on products in various sectors such as fashion, furniture, food, health and entertainment, according to the results of an in-depth analysis of the company’s effects on physical retail prices.

According to the seminary seminar “The impact of Amazon’s entry into Mexico on the prices of physical stores”, produced by Raymundo Campos, Aurora Ramírez, from Colmex, and the independent consultant Daniel Ruiz, when a product is sold by Amazon when its price decreases in physical assets.

Products sold through Jeff Bezos’ company report a reduction in its price in physical trends of between 1 to 28%. This phenomenon occurs to a lesser extent with other markets, since When a product is sold to third parties from an e-commerce platform, its price in stores only registers a reduction of 1 to 7%..

“We find strong evidence that Amazon’s entry into the Mexican market had a pro-competitive effect that has forced physical stores to reduce their prices”, Raymundo Campos said.

How does the study was realized?

Colmex’s analysis is based on the National Consumer Price Index (INPC) of the following categories: clothing, furniture, food, health and maintenance and how they were changed with the entry of Amazon.

The research took into account the cities with the highest percentage of digital buyers: Colima, La Paz, Tijuana, Mexico City and Mexico City; and he compared them with the localities where he registered the least amount of sales in eCommerce, Acapulco, Iguala, Oaxaca, Tehuantepec and Tapachula.

Colmex analysts showed that In those cities where e-commerce has a higher percentage of sales, there was an even faster reduction in pricesCompared to physical stores, they became cheaper up to 36%.

Totaland they chose the 500 most balanced products of the INPC Before and after Amazon entered Mexico.

“This microdata analysis suggests that there is causal evidence that when a product becomes available on Amazon, it creates competitive pressure in physical stores. ”, suggested Aurora Ramírez.

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