Beyond the Loi d’Orientation des Transports Intérieurs (LOTI): Public Transportation in Peri-urban Areas

In France, the 1982 LOTI (domestic transports guidance law) establishes a separation between the responsibilities of the different territorial levels in the field of public transport (agglomerations, departments, regions). However, some developments in local public policy have contributed to a “bottom-up” reappraisal of the way in which these responsibilities are allocated. This dynamic raises numerous questions, both technical and regulatory, as well as important power issues. In order to test these hypotheses, peri-urban public transport was studied using four cases at the crossroad of several territories, networks and professional frameworks: the tram-train projects of Mulhouse and Strasbourg, line 2 of the Montpellier tramway and “line C” of the Toulouse underground.