Toulouse’s pillars of transport policy
The Mayor of Toulouse and President of Tisséo-SMTC (Public Transport Authority of the Greater Toulouse), Pierre Cohen, shared in front of Eltis the pillars of transport policy in his city. Three are, according to him, the priorities in the mobility planning of Toulouse:
1st – divide public space in a way that assigns cars their proper space, i.e. reduce the position of the car within public space and the entire mobility system
2nd – increase the density of the public transport network in order to enhance its capability
3rd – encourage soft mobility modes like cycling and walking in order to create a calmer atmosphere in public space and generate equilibrium between the different mobility modes.
In line with these priorities, and especially priority number 1, the city of Toulouse and the public transport provider – Tisséo-SMTC, supported the development of the car-sharing system Mobilib. The city makes parking spaces for cars from Mobilib available and Tisséo-SMTC gives the money. To avoid that other cars will use the parking space, it is immediately blocked with an iron bar after the car is rented.
After 2 years, Mobilib now has more than 30 cars and over 500 subscribers who always have a car available. The system is easy to use. After selecting and booking a car via the Internet, the client goes to the selected car on a station. To open it, he uses a member card. The key itself is in the car. The average use is 5-10 hours per day and the average distance travelled is 30km. Individual clients mainly use the car for leisure time on the weekend or at night, while company clients use them more during the day or on the weekend, which makes a perfect combination.
More about the Mobilib is available on the video produced by Eltis.