Laboratoire Aménagement Economie Transports

The purpose of COWORKWORLDS is to understand how digital technologies may encourage or discourage more sustainable mobility within urban systems. It aims to do this by focusing on a research topic in the field of urban studies and mobility studies that has so far received little attention from researchers, namely the development of co-working. Co-working may be defined as a new way of organising work based on the sharing of workspace and a network of workers stimulating collaboration. Encouraged by the development of portable digital technologies and the dematerialisation of information, these new intermediate workplaces between the traditional office and the home appeared in San Francisco in 2005 and since then have spread throughout the world. In France, the movement has really gained strength in the last five years, with co-working spaces being set up in large cities as well as in medium-sized ones and peri-urban or rural areas. The creation of co-working spaces by companies is accompanied by a very voluntarist discourse on the part of the authorities who encourage and even financially support their development. This support is justified by the supposedly beneficial (though unproven) effects of co-working, in terms of sustainable mobility. By offering working people the possibility of working close to home, co-working spaces are thought to result in less congestion and pollution, an improvement in the transport situation and more balanced land development. The objective of the COWORKWORLDS project is to question the evidence for the urban sustainability of co-working in different spatial contexts. To what extent does the development of co-working constitute a new direction that is likely to promote more sustainable ways of moving around? The project’s main premise is that the urban sustainability of co-workers’ mobility practices depends on the social (professional, family) and spatial (territorial, residential) arrangements to which they are committed. The whole challenge of the project is to identify the diversity of these socio-spatial configurations and determine whether they are more or less favourable to urban sustainability. This will be achieved by studying both the physical and virtual mobility of co-workers (means of transport, their use of digital tools), understanding the choices which lead them to adopt these practices and gaining a perspective on the spatiality that emerges from them. In order to analyse the physical and virtual mobility practices of co-workers and to distinguish the networks of locations formed by these practices, the project aims to combine a qualitative investigation and a quantitative investigation. As the purpose of this is to vary the profile of both the co-workers and the areas under investigation, the surveys will be carried out in the urban areas of Lyon and Grenoble (city centre and peri-urban areas), as well as in Annecy and the departments of the Drôme and the Ardèche. The COWORKWORLDS project is organized in three survey phases. The first phase aims at characterising coworkers’ socio-spatial configurations. The second phase is devoted to identify the diversity of these socio-spatial configurations. The aim of the third phase is to gain a perspective on the spatiality that emerges from them and determine whether they are more or less favourable to urban sustainability. The project could have impacts in the scientific domain as well as in the economic and social domain (public and privates in the sector of transport and mobility, companies, employees).

Attempts to encourage sustainable consumption through conventional information campaigns are likely to meet at best with limited success. Little is known about the actual effect of eco-labels, and interest has recently turned to the potential use of “nudges”. Consequently, policy-makers have a range of options available to regulate “green” consumer behaviour (e.g., eco-labels, carbon footprint information, descriptive and injunctive norms, fiscal systems, laws, or some combination of these) but little guidance in how to choose between these options. We aim to provide a common behavioural framework for understanding the separate and combined effects of these regulatory systems, and to evaluate their relative effectiveness in a realistic online grocery consumption setting. An additional aim is to learn about choice architectures for online interfaces that are likely to facilitate sustainable consumption. To do this, we draw on three major findings from our precedent project (INCRESP, funded by the ANR between 2010 and 2015). The first major finding showed that descriptive norms (about what other people do) presented during shopping using a realistic incentivized online shopping platform (Greenshop) results in a small but reliable increase in the number of sustainable items purchased (Demarque, Charalambides, Hilton & Waroquier, 2015). The second major finding, using survey methodology in the transport domain, was that some fiscal measures may influence purchase intentions through both prices and injunctive social norms, and that these effects are independent and additive. However, an overly high financial incentive may have paradoxical effects (Hilton, Charalambides, Demarque, Waroquier & Raux, 2014; Raux, Chevalier, Bougna & Hilton, 2015). The third major finding revealed that while presenting numerical carbon footprint on its own had no effect on consumer behaviour, visualization of an ideal sustainable level for a shopping basket (in the form of a carbon footprint “thermometer”) combined with feedback about the consumer’s personal carbon footprint led to average reductions of 10-15% in the carbon imprint of a consumer basket (Corrégé & Inaudi, 2014). In iSUSTCON we go further by proposing an integrative psychological framework for evaluating the likely information-processing costs (high or low) or motivational effects (positive or negative) of various policy interventions (eco-labels, numerical carbon labels, social and injunctive norms, bonus-malus fiscal systems) which in turn are likely to affect the success of these policy interventions. Unlike INCRESP, we focus extensively on eco-labels and make a hitherto unmade distinction between intra-categorical eco-labels and numerical carbon labels that are liable to facilitate inter-categorical processing. This distinction is important, as inter-categorical processing should a priori lead to product substitutions (e.g., meat and dairy by fruit and vegetable) which lead to greater carbon footprint reductions than most intra-categorical substitutions (e.g. standard jam and pasta by “bio” products). We propose a programme of empirical research which will test predictions about the effectiveness of these policy measures in different conditions (Work packages 2-4), using student samples in Aix-Marseille and Toulouse. On the basis of these findings, we will then compare the effectiveness of selected policy measures in a representative sample of the French population using the same controlled setting, namely the Greenshop shopping platform? These data will then be subjected to econometric modelling in order to draw policy implications (Work package 5, Toulouse and Lyon). This analysis will help identify general principles that can be transposed to guide policy makers in other domains of consumption (e.g., domestic energy use, manufactured goods, transport).

For several years, e-commerce or online commerce has been gaining market share in France. The health measures imposed by the Covid-19 epidemic have been accompanied by a significant increase in online purchases, in France as in the rest of the world. Along with the short and long-term increase in its market share, e-commerce has experienced a diversification of goods delivery processes in terms of locations, modes of transport used and delivery times. The research proposed by MOBS aims to understand the socio-economic and environmental impacts of e-commerce by examining in greater detail how it has modified the mobility chains of goods and people, the flows and structures that allow them, and ultimately the territories. The originality of the project is to propose a global and unprecedented approach that jointly considers the mobility of people and goods for online purchases, in BtoC and CtoC, through the examination of the chains of mobility necessary for the delivery of a good purchased online, from its reseller to its place of final use, most often the consumer's home. Trips can be managed, scheduled and delivered by different providers and by consumers who play an important role in the delivery of the goods they buy or sell themselves online. Ultimately, the socio-economic and environmental impacts of the mobility chains generated by e-commerce will have to be estimated in order to better guide the actions of public authorities, especially local authorities. To this end, the MOBS project is based on a mixed and ambitious methodology that will be developed in several parts. The first two parts, carried out in parallel, will provide qualitative and quantitative information on the main stakeholders in these chains, i.e. consumers and operators (in the broad sense). In a third part, we will identify the various mobility chains in their entirety by quantifying their socio-economic and environmental impacts using various fine models. The modelling of the impacts on specific territories will then be used to co-construct, in a prospective manner, with the public players, territorial policies that take into account e-commerce and its effects on mobility, flows and territories. Bringing together different disciplines in the human and social sciences (transport socio-economics, urban planning and development, geography, sociology), the MOBS project relies on researchers and laboratories recognized nationally and internationally for their scientific expertise in the field of mobility of people and goods

Among other consequences, the Covid-19 crisis has prompted the public authorities to rethink the use of public space, particularly roads, in order to develop means of transport that are both efficient and adapted to the health context. Fearing a desertion of public transport and a massive shift towards the automobile, the leaders and technical managers of Europe, North America and South America have turned to active modes, including the bicycle that appeared as a vehicle adapted to ensure minimum physical social distance. The objective of the VÉLOTACTIQUE project is to collect data that will provide practitioners and researchers with the first elements of knowledge on the implementation and reception of tactical cycling town planning in the context of the health crisis, as well as its contribution to energy transition. VÉLOTACTIQUE is based on a comparative study carried out in France, in the metropolises of Besançon, Grenoble, Montpellier, Lyon, Paris, Rennes, Saint-Étienne, in Switzerland, in Lausanne and Geneva and in the Americas, in particular in Montreal and Bogotá. To do this, VÉLOTACTIQUE is based on an exploratory and comparative approach and intend to collect data over 12 months on policies, their developments, their reception with users and the changes observed in practices. The work program of VÉLOTACTIQUE is structured around 4 tasks, allowing the different sites and the different partners to be associated each time. In addition to the task dedicated to project management, the link with partner urban communities and the promotion of results (T1), the project revolves around 3 complementary tasks: an analysis of public policies within the metropolitan areas studied (T2 ); mapping of cycle paths and flows and use of the various paths (T3); and observation of the reception of arrangements and measures with cyclists with a focus on new bicycle users (T4).

"ImPUlSe aims to design innovative supply chain of citrus by-products in Mediterranean area, taking into consideration current socioeconomic situation of actors along the value chain, state of technology and organizational innovation within circular economy. ImPUlSe provides fundamental ground to overcome challenges, such as economic growth and competitiveness, functioning of markets and resilience in value chain, employment, quality of life, efficient use of water/resources, valorisation of waste and re-use of technology within food processing factories. The project aim will be achieved by establishing an Information and Knowledge Hub (IKH) taking a multi-stakeholder approach. Information sharing will be ensured by participatory strategies involving stakeholders in the co-creation of solutions, supported by the latest digital transformation technologies. With this knowledge, the project addresses successful integration of Mediterranean citrus production and distribution system within circular economy based on development of possible socio-economic and environmental scenarios, while considering local values and heritage. ImPUlSe will prototype, test and demonstrate innovative supply chain design of citrus in the pilot countries of Algeria, Egypt, Tunisia and Turkey, based on an intensive research and implementation of the current state-of-the technology and innovative value-case ecosystems within circular economy applied in Germany and France (e.g. machine overhauling). The outcomes of the IKH will serve as the necessary input for establishing an integrated Analytics and Decision Support System (ADSS). As a ""Portal or a Suite of cloud-based analytics and decision support tools"", ADSS will capture and share information in a way that contributes to better understanding of the challenges and requirements for innovation adoption among the actors along the citrus (by-products) supply chain. The final output of the planned work will be the development of (a) a comprehensive framework for increase in adoption level of innovation; (b) a diverse set of quantitative tools and models, to design an innovative and sustainable citrus (by-products) supply chain, and (c) simulation-based scenario assessment system to ease decision making process for farmers, food processors, food distributors (SMEs) and policies. This will contribute to development of innovative and scalable business models, more effective market mechanisms, enhanced healthy competition among economic agents, while respecting Mediterranean heritage and biodiversity."