another round of mostly useless road death statistics [and a terrible graph]

Another terrible report on (French) road accidents and deaths Le Monde pointed to. The entire analysis does not consider once the number of people on the roads or the death per kilometer ratio. Which makes the absolute figures as those represented in this ugly graph hard to comment. For instance, the number of persons cycling to work has increased more than the number of bike deaths. (And, contrary to a urban myth, cycling in Paris should not be considered as a extreme sport: only one  [too many] cyclist died there in 2022.) I also find surprising the (a)symmetry in the age distributions of (overall) road deaths,

since the percentages of evolution between 2019 and 2022 almost exactly compensate for one to the next across the age groups. Any significance in these figures? The statistics that makes the most sense in the report is the comparison of counties where the 90km/h speed limit was reinstated and those where it stayed at 80km/h: an increase of 1% versus a decrease of 2%… As signaled by Le Monde car doors are bike killers: when getting off a car, use your right hand to open the driver’s door (except in Australia, Britain, Japan and 72 other left-hand driving countries!!).

easy does it?! [fuel crisis]

30 less reasons to overtake bikes

the last argument of drivers

When vaguely listening to the national public radio France Inter last night, while cooking dinner, I heard Patrick Septiers, president of le conseil départemental de Seine et Marne, express his (electorate catering) opposition to the new 80km/h speed limit on national and departmental roads on the most rational (!) argument that delivery trucks drove at that speed already and hence that the speed limit would “force” car drivers to break the law to pass trucks. Along with similarly rational claims to have each department regulate its speed limits on the basis it was financing most roads. (I had another illustration of the rationality above when walking by a big SUV this morning, with a large sticker against wind farms.)

the adoration of the golden car

As the demonstrations by the “gilets jaunes” become a fixture of French Saturdays, the French government is gradually giving up on the reforms it had started and is in particular catering to the car [and motorbike] lobby that started the protests. The symbol itself comes from the yellow fluorescent jackets found in every car and the first round of demonstrations was about the rise of the gas taxes towards more sustainable transportation. Things have since then metastasized into a winner-takes-it-all litany of complaints, but with gas engine drivers remaining at the forefront. When driving outside Paris during the Xmas break, every speed radar I X’ed had been neutralised or destroyed, leading to a significant increase in speeding and thus eventually in road kills. Following the abandonment of the gas tax a few weeks ago, the most recent abdications of the government on that aspect are returning to the speed limit of 90km/h on secondary roads, from the year-old decrease to 80km/h, tax rebates for changing cars, financial advantages for frequent highway users and more generally heavy drivers. Ride faster, comrade, until you hit the next right curve!