1. Urban mobility: context and challenges for European metropolises

Mobility issues are increasingly concentrated in urban centers, given their growing importance worldwide and in Europe in particular (75% of the European Union's inhabitants live in conurbations): the 21st century is thus the century of metropolises, which also concentrate the bulk of economic development and innovation potential.

This phenomenon of urban concentration generates marked difficulties in suburban areas and urban centers, with excessive use of the car, respectively for access to the "city-center" due to urban sprawl, but also for the relatively short distances covered by private cars in the city center.

France's major cities (figure 1 ) are no exception to these underlying trends, with significant local mobility...