The French are more carpooling. Six months after the launch of the national plan supposed to promote the use of this practice of traveling to two or more, the ministers Christophe Béchu, Agnès Pannier-Runacher and Clément Beaune welcome the first “positive” results. An engaging finding for what the executive describes as an “essential lever for ecological transition”.
Over the last six months, more than 5.1 million carpooling trips have been recorded by all platforms. A balance sheet twice as large as in 2022 over the same period, according to figures from the national carpooling observatory. These journeys have “made it possible to avoid nearly 25,000 tonnes of CO2 and to save the equivalent of 7.7 million liters of oil”, specifies the Ministry of Ecological Transition.
“Good for reducing our energy consumption and good for the purchasing power of the French, carpooling must continue to become part of the habits of the French”, commented Agnès Pannier-Runacher, quoted in the press release. The Minister for Energy Transition also considered that “this dynamic” should “continue in order to embark even more drivers and passengers in the second half of the year, and make them become regular carpoolers for their daily journeys”. The Minister Delegate for Transport, for his part, welcomed the “130,000 new drivers who trust carpooling everywhere in France”, before extolling the merits of this practice. “We can make our car fleet a real means of collective transport”, launched Clément Beaune.
Invited this Thursday by RMC, the Minister Delegate affirmed that there were up to “50 million empty seats every day in France” in private vehicles, inviting the greatest number to “use the car differently”. Clément Beaune thus hopes to “move to another scale” carpooling, in particular by multiplying the aid for those who would like to get started. A check for 100 euros is already sent to each new registrant on a carpooling platform “whatever it is”, he recalled, i.e. “twenty-five euros right away, and an additional 75 euros after ten journeys to check that the carpooling has been carried out”. Carpooling can be organised, added Clément Beaune, taking the example of the Reims conurbation, where “carpooling” meeting points have been set up, with “the assurance that in less than ten minutes, someone agrees to come and pick you up”.
The good momentum unveiled on Thursday should not make us forget the government’s ambitious objective in this area, which is “to reach 3 million daily journeys, against 900,000 at the end of 2022”. This would allow, according to the Ministry of Ecological Transition, “to reach up to 4.5 million tonnes of annual CO2 avoided, or 1% of France’s annual GHG emissions”.
