The French travel on average 12 times more kilometers every day than their ancestors 200 years ago. It should be said that innovation has allowed the development of new means of transport more and faster over the years. From the car to the train through the air, the transitions to this new mobility, however, they took time, while studying Aurélien Bigo, a researcher on the energy transition of transport at the Louis Bachelier Institute.
Analyzed the evolution of the use of the various means of transport and the necessary energies for its operation. Then, Daniel Breton, founder of the visual data flow, transformed them into a moving and fascinating chronological frieze (which will be found in the video at the top of the article).
“At the beginning of the 19th century, it was essentially the walk that was used in mobility. There is also a little transport of horses that gradually developed, especially at long distances. And then there was the arrival of the rail since the 1830s that will allow developing a faster transport to long distance and competence with the hardened transport,” he remembered Autén Breton.
Long transitions
The researcher points out that the transition to the railroad was “very progressive”, since it was necessary to develop the network throughout the territory. Therefore, the French carried out an average of 4 kilometers per day in 1800, including 3.9 on foot. In 1850, the walk represented 3.8 kilometers, the transport of the use of 0.2 km and the rail of 0.1 kilometers per day. However, in the early 1920s, the train (2.6 kilometers per day on average) began competing with walking (2.7 kilometers), while the use of the car also developed (1 kilometer).
“The main innovations were made at the end of the 19th century. Little by little, the cars took more and more space at the beginning of the 20th century and then we will also have buses and cars that will be motorized. We also have an electrification that will be stronger (…) with in 1900 the start -up of the first line of subway in France,” we sublazed auurolien musty.
The story also had a role to play in the use of new transport modes: “Among the important crises that have been in transport, obviously there are the two world wars that will lead to significant drops of fall in certain modes of transport, especially in the coach who operated with oil, in rail transport, in the car too …”, continues Aurélien Bigo. Before illustrating:
It was not until the 1950s that the car really began to democratize. In the same way, the commercial air transport that was developed in the early 1920s has long been reserved for rich populations and in links that could not be operated by rail transport. It was not until decades before its use in turn democratized.
Daily transport time that changes little in two centuries
Closer to us, Covid pandemic also altered the habits of use of the various means of transport. In 2020, the number of kilometers traveled every day on average fell 31% in France, 38.2 kilometers. Two years later, the average had increased to 51 kilometers, including 34.7 by car, 7.8 by plane, 4.8 by train and 2 by bus/car.
However, “when we observe mobility in recent centuries, transport times have not changed much. We still move about an hour a day and per person. But two centuries ago, this time of transport was carried out with quite slow modes. We made 4-5 kilometers, so life was relatively local,” says Aurélien Bigo.
A revolution that “had very specific consequences in regional planning that has adapted to this availability of faster transport modes, that allow, for example, to go and live further from their work.”
This mobility agitation, of course, raises questions about its environmental impact, while “80% of all kilometers route remain related to oil and this participation will have to be 0% in 2050 if we want to respect our climatic goals,” says Aurélien musty. For him, this is an “important transformation” in just 25 years, especially when “we see that it is some time to make transitions between different modes of transport.” It is enough to see the electric that currently constitutes 3% of the car fleet in France.
Source: BFM TV
