Transportation sector is confronted to the challenge of sustainable mobility. In spite of its importance in the social and economic views, its durability is challenged by its reliance on a fossil energy (oil) and its greenhouse gas emissions in the Earth’s atmosphere. Public policies call for optimizing transport sector, notably by using Information and communications technologies (ICT) in order to rationalize human’s journeys. This study proposes to verify if the use of these technologies can lead to more sustainable mobility by optimizing transports. That’s why we will discuss the case of the relationship between mobile phone positioning applications and travel. A qualitative study has been conducted based on 30 interviews on key actors. The results show that the uses of these applications do not actually optimise travel, but rather increase its environmental cost, particularly leading to more travel and energy consumption. Furthermore, the ability of these applications to modify travel behavior is highly overestimated. Consequently, mobile positioning applications fall short of supporting sustainable mobility.
