Patrick Lapraille, a resident of the Walloon town Léglise, is a hardened “carpooler”. Since 2004, the project manager for BIL’s IT department has organised his trips to Luxembourg with his colleagues, and gained very precise statistics for his commute.
According to Lapraille’s calculations, he has saved more than 20,000 euros through carpooling over the last 15 years, as well as 13,994 litres of petrol.
Like many cross border workers hailing from Belgium, Lapraille has welcomed the system put in place by Sofico, the Walloon Infrastructure Supplementary Financing Society (Société wallonne de financement complémentaire des infrastructures) with great enthusiasm.
After seven months of construction, the carpooling lane was made available to motorists in May 2019. The conditions for using the lane are simple: a vehicle must be carrying at least 3 people and must respect the 50 km/h speed limit.
Lapraille said the lane was effective, improving commuting time by 15 minutes from Léglise (around 60 km). He did, however, lament the fact the system does not exist for the return journey.
The carpooling statistician also remarked on another aspect of the system, saying most cars in the other lanes only hold a single occupant. He suggested opening the carpooling lane to vehicles with two people, as it is difficult to find groups of three to travel together.
Although carpooling has improved commuting conditions for Lapraille and his colleagues, another problem arises once they cross the Luxembourgish border: the traffic. Lapraille said he hoped the Luxembourg government would introduce a similar system on the Grand Duchy’s roads. The success of the carpooling system could also be adopted by the French for the stretch between Thionville and Luxembourg on the A31.
