Mobility Habits of the Cross Border Commuters in Geneva : Who Uses Public Transport?

This paper describes mobility habits of cross border commuters and its determinants in the canton of Geneva, with special emphasis on the the use of public transports. At least one fifth of Geneva's labour force is composed by cross border workers coming from France. Our first findings show that the car is the main mean of transport used to go to work by this population. The main point is that, even though the canton of Geneva has a relatively good network of public transport, its use by cross border commuters remains minimal. Moreover, the “park & ride” system, combining car and public transport is used only by a very little proportion of cross borders. The propensity to use the car increases as the distance from home to work decreases, while the propensity to use public transport decreases significantly when people have to do more tan one change. Our estimations clearly suggest that men are less likely to use public transport, and that public transport cannot be considered as a normal good for cross border commuters