Traffic lights, radars, zones 30, speed bumps… town halls have a substantial arsenal of measures to reduce the speed of motorists.
But what could be better than a bike path on the roadway to ease the driver's foot.
This is what emerges from a study carried out by the Observatory of road risks and mobility, which we reveal to you exclusively (
survey carried out online from March 10 to 13, among 1,004 French people aged 18 and over. plus, representative of the French population
).
When asked about their way of using lanes reserved for bicycles in built-up areas, 68% of motorists questioned by the road prevention and prevention insurance associations said they were extra vigilant when they approached.
Almost a quarter of them even say they are slowing down.
To measure whether drivers are doing what they say, the two associations behind the Road Risk Observatory have created an application called the “community of scouts”.
166,000 driving hours analyzed
Since April 2018, data from more than 166,000 driving hours covering more than 3,591,000 kilometers has been collected thanks to the participation of 1,473 motorists.
After analysis, it emerges that, when they are in an artery limited to 50 kilometers per hour, drivers spend on average 11.1% of their driving time above the speed limit.
A figure that drops to 5% when a cycle path is built in the street.
"These data show that these improvements have a direct impact on the drop in average speeds and on the attention of motorists", concludes the Observatory.
“The speed limit is even better respected by drivers in a street equipped with a cycle path than in the middle of a zone 30, underlines the general delegate of the road prevention association, Anne Lavaud.
There is a better visualization of the sharing of space.
"
Cyclists on the road, a "discomfort"
This finding does not surprise Olivier Schneider, president of the Federation of bicycle users (FUB).
"Motorists experience the presence of cyclists on the road as a discomfort and this causes them to be more vigilant, which encourages them to ease off," he also notes.
Good news for fans of two-wheelers when we know that two-thirds of cycling accidents involve a motorist.
“The presence of cyclists in town contributing to the drop in speeds is an element of road safety for everyone,” says Olivier Schneider.
Moreover, in two-way cycle streets, there has been a decline in accidents, including pedestrians.
"
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Against all expectations, the general delegate of the association 40 million motorists abounds.
“This corresponds to the concept of
French avenues
that I was told about in England and Denmark,” explains Pierre Chasseray.
According to this observation, when a road is bordered by a side obstacle, for example plane trees, drivers tend to reduce their speed by 5 to 10%.
"
We never expected to hear Pierre Chasseray say good things about the facilities reserved for bicycles, developed by the Paris town hall, but he admits it with a smile: “The fact of having installed cycle paths on the banks of the riverbanks. Paris actually helps to lower the speed of motorists when traffic is fluid.
"
Skirmishes ... but at a slower pace
For Olivier Schneider, it is no coincidence that the number of accidents involving cyclists is rather low in the Netherlands.
“This is not because they are angels in the car, but because the cycling arrangements have had a real impact on the behavior of motorists in the city.
"
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Anne Lavaud sees in this the prospect of a better sharing of the road in France and therefore of a truly “smoother” traffic in the city.
“In one-way streets authorized in both directions for cyclists, motorists initially considered the presence of bicycles as an additional danger,” she notes.
Now that this practice has become commonplace, the average speed has dropped.
"
This does not obviously prevent the occurrence of accidents, especially in the narrowest ways.
“Even though there may be clashes, they occur at a slower pace,” says Anne Lavaud.
And we know that speed is the cursor of the dangerousness of accidents.
"