In one year, nearly 37,900 carpools were made to and from the Thau basin

L’application BlaBlaCar Daily met en relation conducteurs et passagers pour des trajets domicile-travail. Midi Libre

Plus d’un an après la mise en œuvre par Sète Agglo d’un programme de covoiturage, l’heure est aux premiers bilans.

Since June, three times a week, Laurie has been using the BlaBlaCar Daily app to travel between her home in Frontignan and her workplace in Lattes. If the 24-year-old woman chose to carpool to get to work, it was first for financial and then ecological reasons. By doing a quick calculation, she claims to save €350 per month, or about three tanks of gas, thanks to this practice. “It doesn't cost me anything”, emphasizes the work-study student. Who does not have to pay a single cent to get into the car that takes her to her workplace.

Also read: The carpooling bonus is renewed in 2024: discover the new conditions to benefit from it

14,000 people registered

Since November 15, 2023, like more than 80 communities in France (including the Montpellier metropolitan area and the Pays de l’Or), the Agglo de Sète has launched its carpooling program on its territory. The goal ? Avoid single-occupancy car use (*) by developing short-distance carpooling via a financial incentive. The system allows the driver to receive compensation of €1 or €2 per trip and per person, depending on the distance traveled. For the passenger, the journey is free thanks to the €52,000 envelope put on the table by Sète Agglopôle Méditerranée for the year 2024. The only condition to be met: make a journey from or to one of the 14 municipalities in the territory.

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“We didn't know if it would work but we are very happy with the results”, says Jean Marchand, sustainable mobility project manager at the Agglo de Sète. The figures speak for themselves: more than 14,000 people in the territory are registered on the BlaBlaCar Daily application and nearly 37,900 journeys have been made in one year. This represents approximately one million kilometers traveled and 180 tons of CO2 avoided. And the use of the platform continues to grow, according to other figures provided by Jean Marchand: “Before the summer holidays, we made between 600 and 750 trips per week. Since September, we have been between 750 and 940”.

“It saves me time”

Corentin started carpooling last April to join Odysseum in Montpellier from Mèze, where his parents live. In addition to the savings made, the young man especially mentions the practical aspect of carpooling: “By public transport, it would take me two hours, whereas now it takes me 40 minutes. It saves me time”. However, he admits that he sometimes has trouble finding a driver for certain areas and for certain times. “The application sometimes manages the location poorly and the meeting place is sometimes 40 minutes away on foot”, he adds. According to the Agglo project manager, there is a 92% success rate in connecting passengers and drivers.

The most popular journeys

As Jean Marchand, sustainable mobility project manager at Sète Agglo, points out, “90% of journeys are to the Montpellier agglomeration, or to the employment area”. Thus, according to data provided by the Carpooling Observatory, an online site under the Ministry of Ecological Transition, in 2024, 13.5% of journeys were made within the territory. Also according to this observatory, over the last twelve months, the five most carpooled journeys were Frontignan-Montpellier (4,143), Montpellier-Poussan (3,038), Mèze-Montpellier (2,158), Gigean-Montpellier (1,941) and Montpellier-Sète (1,287).

For the latter, the advantage of this daily carpooling would not be so much financial. “With €2 per passenger, it helps a little with the cost of petrol but it's not the biggest motivation”, admits Noël who offers the trip between Frontignan and Montpellier airport. “I have a 30-minute drive so it's nice to chat with someone, the time goes by less quickly”, says the one who, due to his late hours, rarely finds passengers. Delphine also talks more about “the human contact” that carpooling offers than the financial aspect. The one who leaves Mèze for Montpellier also recognizes that it is “a good way to avoid everyone being alone in their car and therefore reduce pollution”. Even if she herself rarely has more than one passenger in her car for the moment.

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