French Mobility: innovating for daily mobility

In the wake of national roundtable discussions on mobility, the French Transport Minister launched French Mobility at the start of 2018. This initiative aims to support the experimentation, development and deployment of regional innovations at the service of daily mobility, presenting the same actions reflected by inOut’s approach to new modes of mobility.

In the wake of national roundtable discussions on mobility, the French Transport Minister launched French Mobility at the start of 2018. This initiative aims to support the experimentation, development and deployment of regional innovations at the service of daily mobility, presenting the same actions reflected by inOut’s approach to new modes of mobility.

From National Conferences on Mobility to French Mobility

Since 2017, inOut has promoted an approach in which a revolution in mobility will take place through experimentation and the cooperation of all regional players, both public and private. This assessment was shared during the National Conferences on Mobility and is at the origin of the French Mobility initiative as outlined by Pauline Métivier of the General Directorate for Infrastructure, Transport and the Sea: ‘innovating for mobilities of course entails responding to the challenges in large urban areas, as well as offering a wider choice of alternative transport solutions in rural and less densely populated areas. In order to do this, it seems essential to support experimentation and to encourage players that may not be familiar with each other to work together, notably public bodies and companies able to provide solutions.’

Based on this assessment, the French Mobility approach initially consisted of a call by ADEME for projects of interest, with the first 26 selected projects announced last month. The aim is to encourage new mobility solutions in communities of less than 100,000 inhabitants by funding the necessary engineering for their development. Another call for projects, open until 14 December 2018, aims to support innovative mobility solutions via a system of derogation.

Projects to boost mobility

The French Mobility initiative goes beyond this, aiming to unite the conditions for innovation mobilities through a series of key actions:

• A French Mobility Facilitator. Created in September 2018, the role of this point of contact with the Transport Ministry is to connect the various structures and direct them to the appropriate contacts depending on the nature of their requirements (regulatory, financial, etc.). Contact details: facilitateur@frenchmobility.fr/ 01.40.81.87.49

• A collaborative platform to identify experimentations. Planned for 2019, the aims of this platform are to help mobility players to get together, avoid replicating existing solutions and make it easier for projects to progress to a conclusive stage (see the projects for collaborative tools developed within the context of inOut experimentations).

• Specific action for public procurement and innovation. In concrete terms, this means raising the threshold value for public procurement regarding innovation to 100,000 Euros, as well as ‘reawakening’ the innovation partnerships that have rarely been utilized up to present.

• Finance innovation, notably via the calls for projects mentioned above, and support regional engineering in less densely populated areas, particularly via the management of regional networks.

• Create a common culture. To unite public and private players around a common culture of innovation and mobility, the French Mobility plan will launch a study programme run by IHEDATE in 2019 and envisages exposure trips similar to ‘live my life’ style projects, to help the various mobility players understand each other better.

French Mobility at inOut 2019

With a view to developing an ‘open approach that is not top-down’ explains Pauline Métivier, the promoters of French Mobility will be launching a ‘French Mobility Tour’ in the coming weeks, which will make a stop in Rennes during inOut, from 28 to 31 March 2019. On the agenda is the French Mobility team’s participation in a meeting between ordering parties and solution providers, a presentation of the French Mobility services and a speech on the subject of public procurement.

If you would like to find out more about the French Mobility initiative, follow us on Twitter or come and see us in Rennes from 28 to 31 March 2019.