Charlotte Barriquand, edited by Gauthier Delomez 5:10 p.m., June 24, 2022, modified at 5:10 p.m., June 24, 2022

As the big departures for the summer holidays approach, "France moves" returned to the sage of Bison Futé, who makes forecasts on road traffic in France.

This tool, launched in 1976, has become a reference for many French people who want to prepare their trip as well as possible to avoid traffic jams.

This is perhaps the most famous little Indian of the French.

Bison Futé, represented with his headdress full of feathers, is the tool that allows you to check the state of road traffic in real time, useful for getting an idea of ​​the world on the roads before going on vacation.

A few days before the summer holidays,

La France Bouge

retraces the saga of this French reference in traffic information.

Its origin dates back to a huge traffic jam in 1975. That summer, historic traffic jams were created in the direction of Spain.

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At the time, France was hit by a heat wave and there were not as many service stations as there are today, that is to say with the possibility of buying water or to restore.

In total, more than 600 kilometers of traffic jams form throughout France.

A first use from 1976

So the Ministry of Transport decided to create a tool to inform vacationers of the state of the traffic.

It was used for the first time in 1976, during the crossover at the end of July-beginning of August.

"This is where Bison Futé really started, with a distribution of road maps", explains Fabrice Vella, forecaster at Bison Futé, at the microphone of Europe 1. "Since then, we have added alternative routes, so that makes it possible to offload the main routes", continues the forecaster.

“And then information”, he adds, “so that people can postpone their departure upstream and thus reduce the level of traffic jams to a minimum”.

Timothée, Ginette... How could his name have been Bison Futé?

The origin of its name, Bison Futé, comes from a long history.

There were many proposals, a great hesitation between several names, each more eccentric than the other, before finding the one that was going to make everyone agree, says Fabrice Vella.

"There was Timothée, represented by a bird with binoculars. There was Ginette, who was a giraffe with her long neck which made it possible to observe the traffic in the distance. And then finally, it was the comforting side and which pleased to children" which was retained.

"We know that children in traffic jams are complicated to manage. And the name of Bison Futé was finally adopted", indicates Fabrice Vella in

La France moves

.

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A 50% reduction in traffic jams in one year

The Road Traffic Forecasting Institute is off to a strong start.

In one year, traffic jams have decreased by 50%.

The main mission of Bison Futé is to inform motorists of road traffic using a color code.

Green means free flowing traffic, orange means a difficult situation, red means very difficult, and black indicates that the traffic is particularly clogged.

To draw up this color code, the forecasters look at the frequentations of previous years and establish trends using a mathematical model which calculates in particular the points where we know that there will be tensions, such as the A86, the super- Parisian ring road, which is the most congested motorway in Europe, but also during periods such as the Ascension Bridge or summer, two times of great departures.

62% of French people consult the website every year

Bison Futé does everything to avoid slowdowns, and even stops caused in several ways because of work or because of too much traffic on a motorway plot.

"Often, we encounter traffic jams that we call accordion traffic jams. We accelerate, we brake, it stops. We wait two minutes, and then we start again, it starts rolling again, we don't quite understand why. fact, it's because opposite, there was an accident, or a construction site, and people are braking to watch it on the highway and it's dangerous for themselves. It's going to cause traffic jams", emphasizes Fabrice Vella.

Bison Futé forecasts are relayed on television and radio.

With the summer holidays approaching, each year 62% of French people consult the Bison Futé website before the big departure.