OFF THE WIRE
Despite pouring rain, nearly 100,000 angry motorcyclists brought every major city in France to a standstill in protest of unfair proposals including requiring every rider to wear a fluorescent yellow high visibility vest, banning traffic filtering (lane splitting), and increasing the size of motorcycle registration plates.
Organized by the Federation Francaise des Motards en Colere (FFMC – French Federation of Angry Bikers) through its highly efficient network of regional and local offices, Paris alone saw more than 15,000 bikers blocking the heart of the capital, with thousands more paralyzing dozens of cities across the country for hours with demonstrations against the French government and interior minister Claude Guéant for their anti-motorcycle policies and proposals.
“Bikers in France are just fed up with Guéant’s stupid proposals and his ’I can’t see you, I can’t hear you’ attitude, to the extent that almost 100,000 of them have today stood up against their government and paralyzed the whole nation,” reported www.ukfrancebikers.com.
In response to the largest motorcycle protest in France’s history, road safety director Michèle Merli said on national radio that bikers misunderstood the proposed obligation to wear a high visibility vest but would rather propose to riders that they wear a little yellow strap around their arm so that they can be better seen by motorists.
UK France bikers.com says they believe that “it is not the bikers who have misunderstood the latest government’s proposals but rather the French government who continue to severely misunderstand and under-estimate the safety of riders.”
