Should public money be spent on public transportation?

If we want to curb the effects of climate change, we need to prioritize the financing of transport in our economy. This is necessary for a number of reasons:

• environmentally, to reduce our carbon footprint and improve the economic efficiency of our projects.
• from a social point of view, it responds to a need of our fellow citizens. This need is expressed both on a regional scale, to bring people closer to their homes, and to reduce the distances between work and home. It’s also a necessity for improving the quality of life in our neighborhoods, in the operations we carry out.

On a daily basis, we seek to deploy innovative solutions to produce more transport. And we’re working closely with operators in the Paris region to roll out this new offer:

• Société du Grand Paris, which is deploying the Grand Paris Express network. This network will make it possible to connect the suburbs directly without passing through Paris. This represents a major change in the organization of transport in the Paris region;
• Ile de France Mobilités, which is currently rolling out the TZen, a major bus network that will provide a dense network of routes throughout the Paris region.

I believe that these are major developments, and that the resources allocated to finance these projects are considerable. If we want the people of Ile-de-France to give up their cars, we need to offer credible alternatives for getting around, for working or for taking advantage of the services offered in the region. It is therefore the role of all those involved in urban development to contribute to the provision of such transport, and to offer quality spaces, and quality travel and transport conditions.