living without a driving licence today – VESPA

Studies of daily mobility over the last few decades have focused on the most vulnerable populations in order to understand the social and geographical patterns of their travel. However, the study of these vulnerabilities does not include those who do not hold a driving licence (the licence-less) who currently represent 17% of the French population of driving age. With the exception of the relationship with the driving licence of young urban graduates (6.53% of the licence-less) who postpone it and the diffusion of this certificate in the French population, the daily mobility, the relationship and socialisation to the driving licence or to the car of this fraction of the French population remain little studied. This research project is based on preliminary statistical analyses of the sociological and geographical diversity of the licence-less. The aim is to understand the lifestyles of already identified social groups whose categorisation remains to be improved. At a time when our modes of travel and the use of the automobile must evolve to mitigate ongoing climate and ecological changes, what do the llicence-less tell us about life without direct access to the car? This project does not seek to objectify a 'driving licence effect' but to investigate geographical lifestyles in their social and cognitive diversity among those who do not hold a driving licence. It aims to complement the numerous studies on the barriers and drivers of behavioural changes from car to other modes of transport, as well as on the recent studies on the demotorisation of households. The investigations will be based both on statistical analyses of various INSEE databases, in order to observe notably the evolution of these lifestyles, on public action archives and on qualitative analyses from semi-directive interviews in two French metropolitan territories.