Top 30
Cross-analyzes of Villes de France, the association of elected officials which unites medium-sized towns, and Mytraffic , European leader in pedestrian flow analysis, give birth to a ranking of cities with less than 100,000 inhabitants that have best withstood the Covid-19 health crisis since March 2020. Thionville, credited with the 21e place, therefore integrates this Top 30 dominated by Villefranche-sur-Saône (Rhône), Chambéry (Savoie) and Pau (Pyrénées-Atlantiques).
Clarification of importance: cities in Ile-de-France, cities with urban continuity with metropolises as well as tourist cities (with very strong seasonal variations) are excluded from this ranking.
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1.83 million passages
The anchor of this study is the pandemic. The Mytraffic software – which uses geolocation data from mobile applications, collected by the applications when the user has given their consent – has made it possible to compare the average attendance since March 16, 2020, compared to that which prevailed before the crisis (average from January 1 to March 15, 2020).
According to this statistical tool, Thionville has recorded 1.83 million average monthly visits since March 2020. Even more refined: the city of Moselle would have preserved 76% of its flow compared to the pre-Covid period.
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18 months
The arrival of Mytraffic in the Thionville landscape goes back 18 months. The use of this digital accounting support is the act of Anne-Karine Ivanov: “This device allows not to be in the simple feeling but to benefit from factual data of frequentation of the heart of the city, underlines the city manager. The method participates in the design of market studies intended for project leaders. And even if it is not sufficient to attract an investor, it participates in the final decision of establishment. ”
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30 counting points
Every 11th of every month, Anne-Karine Ivanov examines a very fine photograph of the state of pedestrian traffic in Thionville. This monthly inventory is backed up by thirty metering points scattered throughout the city center: “The flows are counted within a perimeter of 30 meters around each point”, specifies Anne-Karine Ivanov.
Unsurprisingly, the most popular spot in Thionville remains Place Anne-Grommerch (128,700 pedestrian crossings per week) in front of Place Claude-Arnoult (84,100) and rue de Paris (83,300) at dawn of a renewal.
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16% of students
A legitimate question arises about the alleged flaws in this software. Mytraffic draws its data from a geolocation system for mobile applications of users passing through the city center. In short, the same passer-by can be counted several times a day: “Like the gates at the entrance to shopping centers, any counting tool can be improved,” admits the city manager. Which specifies that “stationary telephones for several hours are not counted. They are considered to belong to residents or to people at work. “
On the other hand, young people in school figure well in the balance sheets. With regard to the density of schools in the center, this data is not neutral: “In fact, the attendance of college and high school students reaches 16% in Thionville while the national average is 9%. And that is a very good thing. This information appeals to brands for which teenagers are a target audience ”. In business 2.0 language, this is called geomarketing.
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