Métropole Rouen Normandie: Experimenting a Citizen Mobility Committee
Edited on
15 June 2022Small scale actions are part of the Urbact’s methodology. A great opportunity to test actions or tools and check whether they are relevant or not before elaborating the integrated action plan.
Working with the Urbact Local Group, the Métropole Rouen Normandie identified a list of nine small scale actions. They were requested to test different solutions to involve a larger number of stakeholders and support them to get to concrete action towards net-zero energy.
Focus on a small scale action contributing to involving citizens on mobility challenges.
The context of mobility the Métropole Rouen Normandie
On Métropole Rouen Normandie’s territory, mobility and transportation are responsible of 34% of the greenhouse gases emissions and 24% of the energy consumption. Addressing these topics has been a priority in the way of becoming a net-zero energy territory.
While the Territorial Energy Air Climate Plan is to overhaul daily mobility methods by changing from the car's dominant modal share (67% of daily movements) to a more favourable balance involving soft modes of transport (50% of travelling done through alternative means in 2030), the question is what should be done to effectively change behaviour and habits.
A citizen committee as a small scale action
The Urbact ”small scale action” method was an opportunity to test a new way to involve citizens in the elaboration of the action plan : a citizen committee, based on the citizen convention developed nationally in 2019/2020.
Out of 200 applicants, 17 citizens from the Métropole were selected according to socio-demographic representation criteria and usage diversity criteria. The work program had three sessions lasting a day and a half:
1st session: training and selection of priorities
2nd session: audition of experts
3rd session : propositions
Participation and propositions
On December 11th, the committee of citizens presented 18 propositions to the Métropole’s president, Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol. Several propositions concern public transportation. This shows that, while citizens are aware of the necessity to use more public transport to address climate change, they feel that the current system is not attractive enough nor efficient regarding the mobility needs of lots of people, and it should be improved. Propositions relate to security and comfort in public transport, prices, new lines, better frequencies, new P+R and better connexions with trains.
For Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol, president, and Cyrille Moreau, deputy chairman in charge of transports, future mobilities and active modes of travel in Métropole Rouen Normandie: “Each citizen has a daily experience of mobility, and this can lead him to have ideas for improving his territory tomorrow. That is why the Métropole has created the first Citizen Mobility Committee, inviting 17 volunteer members to work together on solution regarding the mobility of tomorrow. We warmly thank them for their investment and these 18 very qualitative proposals! It is now up to us to analyze the feasibility of each one and to work, when possible, on their effective implementation on our territory! This citizen collaborative work shows us, once again, that mobility is everyone's business! ».
These very interesting and concrete propositions, combined with the satisfaction the citizens involved in the committee have expressed, will probably lead the Métropole Rouen Normandie to use this method again to involve citizens on projects or policy making.
Submitted by Hélène Mazaleyrat on