Commute

What is Commute?

It is a collective initiative with European funding launched in 2018 that brings together public and private players around a common goal: developing a new collaborative management model for sustainable urban mobility.

This innovative public-private partnership has several objectives based on four major strategic areas: improving traffic flow, reducing environmental impact, supporting the region’s attractiveness, and improving the quality of life of its inhabitants. A daring but concrete challenge with the implementation of a digital data monitoring and analysis tool developed with the support of Sopra Steria's teams.

With more than 15,000 new inhabitants every year, the attractiveness of the Toulouse metropolis is affecting road congestion in the entire conurbation. Traffic projections are clear: up to 500,000 additional daily trips in 2025, compared to 4 million in 2015, including 265,000 for only the airport area. This considerable increase means that tomorrow's urban mobility needs to be designed today. This is the challenge of the Commute collaborative mobility management project.

Hybrid and collaborative governance: the driving force behind future mobility

What is the best way to tackle recurrent congestion problems in the Toulouse airport area by making better use of the transport infrastructures of today and tomorrow, and by acting on three additional levers:

Commute

Professional levers:
telecommuting, flexible working hours etc.

Commute

Equipment levers:

car park, coworking spaces, etc.

COMMUTE

Mobility levers:

boosting the share of shared means of transport: carpooling, cycling, etc.

This multidisciplinary approach requires a collaborative and transversal approach to managing the COMMUTE project, involving all stakeholders, both institutional and professional from large companies. Stakeholders involved include: Toulouse Métropole, the pilot of this project, Tisséo Collectivités, Airbus, Toulouse-Blagnac Airport, ATR, Safran, AFNOR, Sopra Steria and the Réussir Business Club.

"The Commute project does not seek to develop yet another technological innovation like most transport flow regulation projects, nor does it seek to offer the latest fashionable solution: it is based on the virtues and quality of human interconnections and the best use of shared data." Jean-Claude Dardelet, Vice-President of Toulouse Metropole in charge of Attractiveness, Tourism, Europe and International

The digital-data pairing: the basis of collaborative mobility management

However, how can this shared vision of mobility strategies be brought to life in practice? With the large number of organisations involved, constituting so many divergent points of view, it is difficult to decide on the collegial actions to be implemented. This is why it was necessary to have a decision-making tool capable of aggregating a large number of heterogeneous data, from public and private sources, and offering a highly relevant representation of mobility on the territory.

"We wanted to demonstrate that digital, when positioned early in the thinking cycle, can provide strong added value and accelerate the impact on complex issues such as the ecological and solidarity transition."

Didier Bosque, Director of Innovation and Digital Transformation at Sopra Steria

As an expert in digital transformation with a strong presence in the pilot area, Sopra Steria is responsible for developing the digital platform, which is the keystone of collaborative managerial innovation. As a result, data from more than 27,000 employees was processed anonymously in full compliance with the GDPR, making it possible to obtain a relevant and representative panel, which guarantees the quality of analysis.

Sopra Steria's digital platform: the partner for collaborative governance

Commute

Collecting open data (road counts, air quality, congestion in the city, public transport network, etc.)

Commute

Collect data from partner companies (anonymised data on home-work commute mobility by grouping origins-destinations)

Commute

Demonstrate the operational value of displayed data for collaborative governance

Anticipating change through experimentation

With their expertise in digital transformation, Sopra Steria's teams provided relevant support to the Commute project participants in understanding complex systemic phenomena, developing multi-partner strategies and deploying coordinated action plans. "In addition to its expertise as an integrator, Sopra Steria proved to be a genuine partner capable of making proposals, developing the tool beyond our initial expectations and creating a real decision-making tool," explains Anne Julia, Sustainable Development Manager at Toulouse Blagnac Airport.

Once the tool was deployed and operational, the group of companies (Airbus, ATR, Safran, Toulouse-Blagnac Airport, Club Réussir and Sopra Steria) defined a joint action plan and launched an experimentation phase involving 27,000 employees. The aim of this inter-company mobility plan is to test and evaluate the impact of the various possible solutions.

In addition to developing the digital platform, Sopra Steria has launched the development of its own Employer Mobility Plan by joining the collaborative governance of the inter-company mobility plan Commute.

New mobility solutions preferred by users

The mobility solutions initially considered had to be reviewed in view of new forecasts. Among the main changes in behaviour observed, some stand out and provide a glimpse what the urban mobility of the future will look like.

Carpooling

+ 4 %
modal share increase over the period September 2018 to September 2019

€460,000
gain in cumulative purchasing power

1,000,000 KM
avoided by car

140 tonnes
of CO2 emissions avoided

Significant growth in cycling and micromobility

11%
modal share, i.e. a 6-point increase.

Positive consequence of the reduction in the use of the solo car observed:
a gain of 1.3 tonnes of CO2 equivalent each day.

The "two-wheeler" is on its way to tomorrow

This first experiment has enabled Toulouse airport to identify the bicycle as the preferred alternative to car use. How did it work? By using the tool to analyse the cycling practices of its employees, to find out how far they travel and to determine an average "zone of influence", i.e. the distance travelled by bicycle on a home-work journey. This distance is estimated to be 11 km, against all expectations, whereas the experts only value it at 3 km among decision-makers and political referents!

"Thanks to the tool proposed by Sopra Steria, we were able for the first time to visualise the precise location of our employees anonymously, and analyse their home-work mobility practices. We realised that there was a strong potential for a modal shift towards cycling, which no one would have imagined," continues Anne Julia, Sustainable Development Manager at Toulouse Blagnac Airport.

What can we conclude from this? That the potential for cycling in the airport area is much greater than estimated and must be accompanied by tangible measures to supplement the cycling infrastructure in a targeted manner. On the basis of these facts, the analysis report was presented to the elected representatives concerned and a budget was allocated to promote the development of cycling. An initiative completed by Toulouse airport which, in 2021, will make a bicycle parking area available to the 4,000 employees of the platform.

Finally, Tisséo Collectivités has also set up experiments with new services dedicated to cyclists: repair workshops, safety awareness sessions, rental services, proof of pedaling applications, etc.

This is a first step towards a profound change in mobility by 2025: more collective, gentler and above all greener mobility.

"Our mobility management tool demonstrates the strength of collaborative management. It is an essential tool for anticipating new mobile uses and participating in building the city of tomorrow. As such, the platform contributes to meeting our challenges, namely: offering a, more ecological, smooth-running quality living space that is more inclusive of the various urban players, public institutions, companies and citizens." Anne Julia, Sustainable Development Manager, Toulouse Blagnac Airport