Interesting that they’re running this topic again, this was originally announced a month ago, and good to see they’re doing a followup, but quality of reporting leaves a bit to be desired, a fair few stereotypes and sniping at the beginning 🙁
On the one hand we have a sentence that makes it out to be a begrudging slackening of the law because you just cant stop those pesky cyclists from breaking it:
is a radical step that recognises a regrettable truth: that cyclists in cities often fail to stop at red lights. Rather than step up repression of this misdemeanour, the Paris city authorities have decided to make it legal
But later they do at least acknowledge some of the reasons why:
What we want to do is make life easier for the cyclist. Stopping and starting requires energy, and too often it is completely unnecessary. By not having to stop, they can get where they are going more quickly
But there’s no discussion of what causes the danger and behaviour in the first place, poor routes, un-necessary obstacles, putting cyclists in dangerous places at junctions etc. Letting them turn on red legally is a positive step but it’s still symptomatic of the problem.
“Also allowing cyclists to proceed is safer, because it means they avoid getting caught beside trucks and buses as they wait for lights to change. That is the origin of a lot of accidents.”
Inside Paris proper, traffic moves quite slowly and the few fatalities there are tend to be when cyclists are caught on the inside of heavy vehicles.
Would much rather this was dealt with by better route design, junction planning and appropriate infrastructure rather than just giving cyclists the, now legal, option of getting out of the way if possible.
Same problems as London and many other major cities, at least Paris are thinking and acting on evidence and research, I believe they already have a ban on big HGVs during busy hours, and this latest step has been proven to work elsewhere, it seems like here in the UK the powers that be are unwilling to acknowledge some issues, point blank ignore evidence and are determined to do the bare minimum they can possibly get away with, coupled with a good dose of anti-cycling rhetoric in the media it’s depressing to compare.
