Road safety – Paris is considering a Charter of motorized two-wheelers –

Paris is considering a Charter of motorized two-wheelers

Road safety - Paris is considering a Charter of motorized two-wheelers -

At the end of a technical day of reflection on the place of motorized two-wheelers in the city, the City of Paris recognizes its lack of skills and proposes a Charter between users, public authorities and manufacturers. Decryption.

The City of Paris organized yesterday, under the sumptuous ceilings of the Hôtel de Ville, a National technical day titled "What a place for motorized two-wheelers in the city ?"Thanks to the interventions of representatives of four major European cities (Barcelona, ​​London, Rome and Athens, read), the event seems to have avoided – narrowly! – the pitfall of politically correct purring to lead to a project by Denis Baupin mayor deputy (Green) in charge of transport: develop "a motorized two-wheeler charter involving users, public authorities and manufacturers", on the model of the Dutch Code of Conduct (read).

"We expect a lot from this day, declared Denis Baupin opening the debates. "We have succeeded in rebalancing modes of transport by refusing to adapt the city to the car as Pompidou wanted in the 1970s and in two years we have recorded a 10% drop in car traffic. We have tried to take into account the expansion of powered two-wheelers in cities, which seem better suited than cars because they take up less space. We know how to make bus lanes, cycle paths and arrangements for cars, but we have no solution to reduce accidents involving motorized two-wheelers, nor to respond to other specific problems. However, the notion of freedom attached to this type of vehicle makes it popular today".

It remains to be seen what will remain of this famous "concept of freedom"once the charter has been adopted, and above all what will be the respective rights and duties … Because for the moment, it is clear that the general trend is to apprehend motorized two-wheelers only from the angle of his "problems"(safety, parking, pollution, noise, image, etc.).

Especially since the FFMC, after its resignation from the CNSR (read), continues its policy of the empty chair by considering that "the issues of two-wheelers are never taken into account by the public authorities". She therefore did not wish"endorse this communication operation"by officially joining the debates, leaving his representative from the Paris-Petite Couronne branch, Henri de Voguë, to intervene from the room while the Movement for the Defense of the Bicycle, Moto Zen and the League Against Road Violence s’ expressed on the platform…

Finally, concluding a day he had not attended, the interministerial delegate for road safety Remy Heitz indicated that "the final figures for 2003 are now known and show an evolution which is not good: 813 motorcyclists killed against 973 in 2002, that is to say a decrease of 16% whereas it is of 23% for the motorists, and 372 drivers of cyclos killed against 366 in 2002, an increase of 1.6% while the general context is declining".

As a copy-paste strategist, the delegate finished by once again asserting his now famous leitmotif: respect the existing rules before requesting their modification. "There must be signs of respect for speed by bikers", he estimated:"sometimes I hear they want to be able to go 10 km / h above the water or in the bus lanes, but no, they have to play by the rules first. Sometimes I get overtaken by motorcyclists traveling at 150 or 200 km / h! Today, motorists have the feeling that motorcyclists enjoy a certain impunity, while 3% of tickets issued by automatic radars concern motorcycles, which roughly corresponds to the number of vehicles in circulation."…

Recalling that he had "accepted the invitation of a motorcycle magazine to ride as a passenger"(read), Remy Heitz has however assured that since then he has not seen"no longer bikers like before"and argued for a"better consideration of motorized two-wheelers throughout the road safety training continuum"…

Eric MICHEL

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