Transport costs in households' budgets and their evolution in 1985-2011 according to the type of space

Transport and energy transition policies have a growing impact on travel behaviour, car purchase, and services of transport. A better understanding of the geographical factors that structures household transport budgets is therefore essential to predict how the efforts required from the inhabitants will be distributed across a country. The article analyses the spatial differentiation of transport budgets according to five types of urban and rural, more or less densely populated areas in continental France, between 1985 and 2011. It also considers the evolution over time of this differentiation. This study shows that differences in average household transport budgets over the French territory are mainly explained by the number of cars per household. There are small variations around this fundamental relationship that may be explained by high-speed train or aircraft services in large metropolises or the low level of household income in some areas, which need further investigations.