Polytechnique insights A REVIEW BY INSTITUT POLYTECHNIQUE DE PARIS
Polytechnique insights A REVIEW BY INSTITUT POLYTECHNIQUE DE PARIS
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Cars: new solutions to the ongoing pollution problem

3 episodes
  • 1
    Car-sharing: a critical step in reducing transport emissions 
  • 2
    Less cars in central Paris, more pollution on the outskirts
  • 3
    “Tomorrow, roads will produce energy for vehicles”
1_autopartage
Épisode 1/3

Car-sharing: a critical step in reducing transport emissions 
On March 1st, 2023
4 min reading time
Christophe Midler
Christophe Midler
Emeritus Professor of Innovation Management at École Polytechnique (CNRS/IP Paris)
Thomas Matagne
Thomas Matagne
CEO and Founder of Ecov

Key takeaways

  • Road transport is responsible for 30% of CO2 emissions in France, 16% of which are specifically from private cars.
  • To reduce these emissions, there are several solutions: switching to electric vehicles and using public transport.
  • In June 2022, the European Parliament voted to ban the sale of new combustion engine vehicles by 2035.
  • Carpooling services are being set up to provide a solution for those who do not have access to public transport.
  • The ecological transition can only happen if we ensure the coordination of parties that are not used to working together.
Voie sur berge à Paris
Épisode 2/3

Less cars in central Paris, more pollution on the outskirts
Léa Bou Sleiman, Léa Bou Sleiman is a doctoral student in urban and environmental economics at the Centre de Recherche en Économie et Statistique (CREST) at École Polytechnique (IP Paris)
On May 25th, 2022
3 min reading time
Léa Bou Sleiman
Léa Bou Sleiman
Léa Bou Sleiman is a doctoral student in urban and environmental economics at the Centre de Recherche en Économie et Statistique (CREST) at École Polytechnique (IP Paris)

Key takeaways

  • Urban congestion causes problems, particularly air pollution, which according to the WHO is responsible for 4.2 million premature deaths per year worldwide.
  • In 2016, the City of Paris closed the “voie Georges-Pompidou” - also known as the “les voies sur Berges” - a road covering 3.3km and used by around 40,000 vehicles per day.
  • As a result of this policy, pollution shifted location resulting in an increase in NO2 concentration in the air around the Eastern ring road to 70μg/m3 while in the centre, the pollution rate remains around 40μg/m3.
  • To curb this pollution and these problems, the reopening of the road at certain intervals (during rush hours for examples) or the introduction of an urban toll are possible solutions.
Electric car concept running on the road.
Épisode 3/3

“Tomorrow, roads will produce energy for vehicles”
Bernard Jacob, Professor at the ENTPE and ESIEE (Gustave Eiffel University)
On October 6th, 2021
3 min reading time
Bernard Jacob
Bernard Jacob
Professor at the ENTPE and ESIEE (Gustave Eiffel University)

Key takeaways

  • Road transport represents about 30% of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.
  • Some of these emissions come from roads, as the materials used to make them, such as cement and bitumen, are non-renewable and energy-intensive.
  • To overcome this, contactless induction systems are being developed or tested in Europe and Asia.
  • Sweden and Germany are experimenting with these so-called "electric road systems" (ERS).
  • The surface of the roads receives the sun's rays, and could constitute a source of energy of the order of 2.25 GW (i.e. 3.5% of the installed electrical power in France).

Contributors

Léa Bou Sleiman

Léa Bou Sleiman

Léa Bou Sleiman is a doctoral student in urban and environmental economics at the Centre de Recherche en Économie et Statistique (CREST) at École Polytechnique (IP Paris)

Léa Bou Sleiman is a PhD student in urban and environmental economics at the Centre de Recherche en Économie et Statistique (CREST) at École Polytechnique, under the supervision of Benoît Schmutz and Patricia Crifo. His work focuses on public policies related to cities, with a particular emphasis on environmental and transport aspects. The main objective of his research is to study the central role of transport in today's cities, to estimate the optimal road capacity in cities and to assess how transport influences individual travel behaviour, both theoretically and empirically.

Other contributions

Less cars in central Paris, more pollution on the outskirts
Bernard Jacob

Bernard Jacob

Professor at the ENTPE and ESIEE (Gustave Eiffel University)

Bernard Jacob started working at SETRA on the safety of bridges and load codes, then joined the Laboratoire Central des Ponts et Chaussées (LCPC) where he led projects on the fatigue of metal bridges under traffic. He has led European and international projects on the weighing of heavy goods vehicles, dynamic interactions between infrastructures and vehicles, the safety and behaviour of heavy goods vehicles, their weights and dimensions (expertise for the European Commission) and was technical director of road operation and safety at LCPC and then transport and infrastructures at IFSTTAR before joining the Research vice-presidency of Gustave Eiffel University.

Other contributions

“Tomorrow, roads will produce energy for vehicles”

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