To mark Sustainable Mobility Week, a look back at an event that has greatly contributed to its development: the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
On Sunday September 8, Paris said goodbye to its Games with the closing ceremony of the Paralympics. The Games were a huge sporting and popular success, but also a success in terms of sustainable mobility. Also known as «ecomobility», it aims to reconcile people's travel needs and reduce the carbon impact of transport.
For these Olympic Games, Paris 2024 had set itself strong and inspiring ambitions.
Anatomy of some of its mobility successes :
- This Olympiad is the very first in history to be 100% accessible by public transport (RER, metro, bus, tramway), with real consideration given to soft modes of transport (cycling, walking) and facilities for people with disabilities.
- For these Olympic Games, the transport offer for spectators has clearly been strengthened, and investments already underway have accelerated. Although some projects were postponed until after the Games (CDG Express, Grand Paris Express lines), the new infrastructure was deployed on schedule, including the capital extension of Line 14, the Franchissement Urbain Pleyel and the extension of T3. The offer has been designed to transport all spectators and athletes, while offering regular travellers the chance to plan their journeys in advance. That's what the Anticipating the Games built with all mobility and regional players.
- Since the bid, Ile-de-France Mobilités has fully played its role as Mobility Organizing Authority, a wise decision-maker and financier, capable of integrating the coordination of transport operations with its partners.
For these Games to succeed, collective orchestration and a systemic approach were essential, drawing on the wealth of expertise of all the players in the transport sector, and taking into account all the constraints to create a complementary and robust offering.
The goal? The «seamless» for travelers between competition venues, public spaces and transport areas, regardless of the operators or local authorities involved, ensuring not only a seamless travel experience for everyone, but also overall control of a transport system that is extremely busy during the period. Services (accompaniment, passenger information, ticketing, security, etc.) have perfectly fulfilled this role, and have been designed to meet the specific needs of all types of public, whether Parisians, French citizens or foreign tourists, whether spectators, disabled or accredited...
Lastly, what would have been the outcome of this Olympic sequence without optimal preparation and coordination of all the players in the mobility sector (Ministry of Transport, Ile-de-France Mobilités, RATP, SNCF Voyageurs, Gares & Connexions, Paris 2024, Keolis, Transdev, etc.) to anticipate and react in case of hazards?
Their mobilization was also reflected in the massive deployment of staff, from drivers to security, cleaning and maintenance personnel, and those in charge of accompanying travellers, with a strong physical presence around the sites and in the transport areas. We'll all remember these agents in their purple vests, equipped with translators, megaphones and big hands to welcome and direct spectators to the competition venues. Driven by the pride of contributing to a historic moment, these field agents, most of them volunteers, embodied French hospitality, made possible thanks to a great deal of training, coordination and investment on the part of all those involved in mobility and local authorities.
So what does the future hold?
The Olympic and Paralympic Games have acted as a real booster for the future of sustainable mobility, for a number of reasons.
Firstly, the infrastructure already exists and will continue to be part of the everyday life of the people of Paris Region. The success of the Games is a perfect showcase for transport and acts as a real lever of attraction for the people of Paris. It has shown passengers that it is possible to have very robust operations and a very high quality of service. Clearly, all the players involved have been able to mobilize for major events, and will continue to do so in the future.
Passengers have also discovered that they can reach many towns and areas by public transport, even outside Paris (Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, Versailles, Vaires-sur-Marne). All fluidly and efficiently by combining different means of travel: to encourage multimodality in the future.
However, this enchanted period may be short-lived. On a day-to-day basis, the resources deployed have a cost that the transport system cannot sustainably absorb as it stands.
There are, however, alternative and sustainable ways of transforming mobility behaviors and habits.
As the Games draw to a close, how can we make mobility more sustainable in the long term?
There are a number of ways in which we can support travellers in reclaiming their mobility. Obviously, developing the offer remains key to giving as many travelers as possible access to sustainable mobility. But we also need to promote these offers and educate people: introducing education in public transport and soft mobility from an early age and for everyone. This could take the form of courses on the subject at school, or awareness-raising workshops for adults.
Another major priority is to continue accelerating the provision of passenger information in all its forms (static, dynamic and circumstantial) and via all channels (digital, visual, audio, etc.), in order to demystify the complexity of transport and support each passenger throughout their journey.
Last but not least, convincing motorists to leave their cars in the garage and take the bus or train means guaranteeing them a safe arrival time, as well as travel conditions in line with their expectations and abilities. So, improving and informing people about the level of comfort and affluence in transport is a real key to the future, and plays a crucial role in continuing to develop sustainable mobility.
Cécile Gouesse, Partner & Jérôme Cointot, Managing Partner
Our Mobility Division
As a specialist in transformation projects, our consulting firm offers ustrategic and operational support for our customers in the mobility sector, helping them to rethink their business model and assess its impact.
As in all the strategic analyses carried out by our teams, our role is to guarantee a comprehensive analysis of all the dimensions involved, to facilitate informed decision-making, adapted to each context and territory.
