Abstract
The metric of the current roads networks tends intrinsically to favour the efficiency of the routes which have the longer range, what leads to promote urban sprawl and automobile dependence. Indeed this metric ensures to individuals the possibility to travel even further, without necessarily increasing their transportation time in the same proportions. According to this assessment, we introduce a new kind of metric, the “slow metric”, which amounts to invert the current ratios of efficiency between the different types of automobile travels, that’s to say to favour the efficiency of the short range travels. At last, we discuss the ability of the slow metric to be a lever, on the one hand to contend automobile dependence in the roads networks design and, on the other hand, in a more general perspective, to promote territorial functionings based on physical proximity between places of lives, what leads them to be more sustainable.