Once again, France has today been the scene of enormous
demonstrations with thousands of motorcyclists gathering in every city
across the nation and protesting at the newly proposed speed limit of 80
km per hour on the national road network.OFF THE WIRE
The French government has recently proposed to limit the speed to 80 km per hour on the non-motorway network in an attempt to reduce the number of accidents and casualties on the roads. A large number of bikers fundamentally disagree with the proposal stating that speed is not the main cause of accidents but rather the complete lack of adequate training offered by the government to make drivers realise that driving safely is all about respecting the highway code and learning how to share the roads with other users. The angry bikers accuse the government of wanting to impose draconian measures in the sole attempt to cash in extra euros from road users who simply won’t respect the proposed speed limits.
Paris alone saw more than 5,000 angry bikers blocking the city centre for hours and bringing it to a complete standstill. “We
will never accept to be treated like cash cows by our government just
because we refuse to follow stupid rules. We demand better training,
improved road infrastructure, access to bus lanes, to name a few. Simply
reducing speed limits does not help drivers improve their driving
habits and learn how to share the roads with motorcyclists”, says
Damien, a frustrated motorbiker we interviewed this afternoon during the
Paris protest. The French capital was brought to a complete stop during
a busy shopping afternoon and thousands of angry bikers also gathered
outside the head council offices to remind the newly elected mayor, Anne
Hidalgo, that she’d better keep her promise to maintain motorcycle
parking free of charge in Paris if she doesn’t want to have to cope with
regular and highly disruptive bikers’ demonstrations.
Other
cities across France also saw massive protests today with thousands of
angry motorcyclists showing their opposition to the reduced speed limit.
Lyon, the second largest French city, was also paralysed this afternoon
with thousands of bikers blocking the city centre and protesting at the
new speed restrictions. A number of key roads and junctions had to
close in the heart of Lyon as they were taken over by the angry bikers.
Protests took place in 80 towns and cities across the country and were
all organised by regional branches of the extremely respected and
powerful Fédération Française des Motards en Colère (FFMC) also known in English as the French Federation of Angry Bikers.A number of fellow bikers in the United Kingdom have been following the actions undertaken by their French cousins with deep interest. “We very much admire our French colleagues for their determination to fight every piece of anti-bike legislation. Unfortunately, in the U.K. bikers tend to accept government spin and don’t have the courage to say no to stupid laws like the French do. We don’t have such a powerful body like the FFMC and I wish we had one. Vive la France!”, said Graham, a London based biker.
The French government will further discuss the proposals in May and a decision will be made by the end of the year. The bikers are prepared to take up the streets again if need be to express their on-going anger.
We now leave you with a few videos which will give you an idea of how angry French bikers were today…