Nearly one in five French people do not have easy access to public transport, according to a study

Nearly one in five French people do not have public transport within a ten-minute walk of their home, according to a study published Tuesday by UFC-Que Choisir, which will launch an awareness campaign on collective mobility among elected officials in particular.

Less well-off rural departments

According to the association, “around 17% of the metropolitan population […] has no access to public transportation within a ten-minute walk”.

The absence of a bus stop or train station is particularly glaring in small towns since almost half (45%) of towns with less than 1,000 inhabitants are completely deprived of them.

UFC-Que Choisir has produced a map of “accessibility to public transport”. The least well-off departments are also the most rural, led by Gers, Lot and Lozère.

In these three areas, more than 60% of the population does not have a public transport stop within a ten-minute walk of their home.

On the contrary, in Île-de-France, more than 90% of people can walk, in less than ten minutes, from their home to a bus, tram, metro or train station. The level of availability of public transport is also quite good in the South-East.

The consumer association also studied the presence of rail transport (train, metro, tramway) in the immediate environment. “According to our study, 85.3% of the French population does not have a train station within a ten-minute walk”notes UFC-Que Choisir.

A “financing overhaul”

“Many rural areas, but also peri-urban areas, lack this type of infrastructure”affirms the association which also extended its study to the accessibility of stations by bicycle.

“Our results show that 53% of the French population is more than ten minutes by bike from a train station”says the UFC.

Only Île-de-France shows a high level of accessibility to the train thanks to cycling. In more than 80 departments, or almost all of mainland France (apart from the Rhône thanks to the Lyon metropolitan area), more than half of the population has to cycle more than ten minutes to take a train.

The method of financing public transport, which relies heavily on a contribution from local companies (the mobility payment), penalizes rural areas while companies are generally concentrated in large urban centers, deplores the UFC.

The association demands a “overhaul of the financing of local mobility organizing authorities guaranteeing them the necessary resources for the development of public transport”.