Many regeneration projects aim at producing a benefit of the population around them. However, it may happen that the socio-economic problems and needs of the territory involved are not completely understood. This paper reports on a case study of the northern part of France, namely Bassin-Minier, which used to be a coal mining area. It is a partic ular metropolitan area with a specific geography and spatial distribution, which faces different social problems, along with a limited public transportation system. Focus groups were used as a methodology to disentangle the transport behaviour, situation and needs of the people living or working in this specific territory due to the limited availability of other recent sources of information. We have chosen to focus specifically on groups with limited availability of transportation or in risk of social exclusion. This research also aims at contrasting different future and recent transport and regeneration projects with the population under study, to understand whether these projects are found beneficial by them.