2023-09-04 11:45:02
It’s possible to be paid not to take your car anymore. The European Metropolis of Lille (MEL) is experimenting, from Monday September 4, with a system of“ecobonus” with the program “Changing your habits pays off”. It provides for the payment of a bonus to motorists giving up driving alone in their car during rush hour on the most congested axes of the Lille conurbation, starting with the A1 and A23 motorways, which is a first in France.
According to the Métropole, each journey avoided by car will give the right to win a reward in the amount of €2 per journey within the limit of €80/month which will be paid directly into the bank account of the participants. To do this, you will have to use public transport, take your bike, telecommute, carpool, shift your working hours, or try the so-called “hybrids” by using his vehicle to go to a station or park in a park and ride.
???? Giving up the car during rush hour, a new reality for more than 3000 participants.
The experimental program #changingreports starts for a period of 9 months.
???? Goal: reduce traffic by around 6%, or 750 fewer vehicles.https://t.co/aaIBJgku2upic.twitter.com/T3askUCPrl— European Metropolis of Lille (@MetropoleLille) September 1, 2023
In order to verify changes in mobility behavior and validate journeys “erased”, the user will have to provide proof, via an application on his smartphone, that he has not used his car voluntarily during a specific time slot in the morning and evening. Through this, the MEL will have a report of the load shedding carried out by the 3,000 candidates registered in the system. The Métropole plans to reduce traffic by 600 vehicles at peak times on the A1 and by half on the A23.
Pollution: what future for low emission zones (ZFE)?
The program “Change pays off” is being tested on an experimental basis for 9 months, from September 2023 to June 2024, on the A1 and A23 motorways. If the MEL manages to achieve its objectives, it could be deployed on other axes.
Under study since 2015 in Lille, this principle of “reverse toll”should already have been implemented there at the end of 2018. But the initiative had been abandoned, the mobility orientation bill voted in November 2018 no longer providing for the possibility of such a system. .
A project inspired by the Netherlands
The project is inspired by what has been implemented in the Netherlands, more particularly in Rotterdam since 2014. Involving up to 12,000 participants in different areas of the agglomeration and allowing up to 5,000 journeys to be avoided at peak times per day on average on the targeted routes.
At the same time, a lane reserved for carpooling when traffic is dense will be tested from Monday, September 4 on a section of the A1 motorway near Lille, one of the busiest axes in France, announced Thursday the prefecture of the North. French law has made it possible since 2019 to reserve lanes for carpooling, as has been the case for many years in the United States. Several tracks of this type have been put into service in Lyon, Grenoble and Bordeaux.
A fine of €135 for offenders
Currently, only 18% of vehicles traveling on the A1 have at least two people on board, noted Xavier Delebarre, Interdepartmental Director of Northern Roads, but 15 years ago this rate was only 11%, which proves a “behavioral change”which this new initiative tends to accelerate.
The new lane should allow carpoolers to save up to seven minutes in travel time on this section. Drivers using this lane without having the right to do so, materialized by a diamond on a luminous panel, will be liable from October to a fine of 135 €.
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