2023-11-24 16:49:19
“We all know the French love for their cars! » A passionate relationship which would even be part of the criteria to explain the ownership of a car, according to François Dubujet. This Thursday, this head of demographic and social studies at INSEE Île-de-France unveils a study carried out with Myriam Yahyaoui on the automobile ownership rate of Ile-de-France residents and its evolution since 1975.
Has love faded over the years? This is what the figures published in this report seem to reveal, based on data from the various censuses. A particularly marked disenchantment in Paris. In 2019, 34% of households had a car in the capital, compared to 43% in 1975. A percentage which reached 46% in 1990, “before decreasing more and more sharply”.
An exception among large French cities
And Paris is an exception among France’s large cities, where more than half of households have cars. For example, 61% of people in Lyon have one or 70% of people in Nantes. Overall, Île-de-France is a region where residents have far fewer vehicles than elsewhere. Four years ago, 66% of Ile-de-France households had at least one car, or two out of three households, compared to 85% in the rest of the country. A figure which has therefore been gradually decreasing since the 2000s in the region. “But there is a very strong territorial disparity,” notes François Dubujet.
To summarize, the further away from the capital, the more households own a car. 83% of residents of the outer suburbs have at least one car, compared to 65% of those living in the inner suburbs. A percentage that must still be divided by two in the intramural zone, to arrive at 34%.
“In Paris, this is explained by the abundant and diversified offer of public transport but also by the difficulties of parking and traffic,” explains the co-author of the study. The socialist majority at the head of the city has also adopted a policy of reducing car space, in favor of so-called soft mobility such as cycling or walking.
A “strong generational effect”
But the “sociodemographic” structure of the capital also explains this low percentage. “There are many single people, young and old, who live there,” explains François Dubujet. However, these are the ones who least often own vehicles,” he continues, with supporting figures. In France, 44% of single people have a car, compared to 80% of couples without children or 91% of couples with adult children. Likewise, only 31% of those under 25 are equipped with one compared to 74% of 55-64 year olds.
François Dubujet notes a “strong generational effect” on the question. “The equipment rate drops very significantly for those under 40 in Île-de-France,” he underlines. Whereas we see that those aged between 65 and 79 have kept the same purchasing behaviors over the years. »
What predicts a future with fewer and fewer cars? Last May, the Parisian Urban Planning Workshop (Apur) reported an unprecedented reduction of 1.21% in the number of cars registered in the region. “We are witnessing a paradigm shift in relation to the role of the car,” analyzed Olivier Richard, director of studies.
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