Deaths on French roads per year in the 70’s was around 30,000 or more.
France is doing ok.
If they rewrite the code de route,……it is ridiculous……get rid of RH death priorities, silly rules at roundabouts, retest peeps above 65….and ban people for life for drinking/drug taking and driving….then France might reduce road deaths.
But there would be a violent protest in Paris if you did that.
I read a report many years ago prepared by a French psychologist about the French motorist. He came to two conclusions - (1) French drivers have to be in front, not following, and (2) French drivers follow no highway code except their own.
I forget what sex the drivers were in the report, but I have to assume that is was about the male motorist.
[quote=“Corona, post:29, topic:43574”]
But it only takes moments to reverse out of the way?? Instead silver back mentality takes over, daft ol burgers.
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SA road death figures are something else, It’s a huge country with a low proportion of car ownership compared to Europe and with excellent main roads (albeit with a 120kph speed limit on single carriageway highways) where each December during the pre-Christmas holiday migration to the south coast more people are killed in traffic accidents in a single month than in the whole year in the UK. They actually set up mobile field hospitals alongside the main highway between Joburg and the Cape.
And that’s before one even gets into rest of the year urban accident stats - with overloaded minibus taxis breaking the speed limit on bald tires .
I drove to the boulangerie in a nearby village the other morning. On the way back I was driving at what I believed to be a sensible speed for the bumpy, twisty and narrow road. In no time I had a woman tailgating me and desperately trying to overtake - maybe late for work. This couldn’t be achieved safely so I pulled over as soon as possible to let her pass. I agree completely with the findings of the French psychologist.
I do admit to once always being the one in front - I was able to overtake safely with no tailgating with a large Italian V-twin engine propelling me.
An old and very experienced international lorry driver who had seen it all once told me that the French don’t want to behind you or in front of you….they want to be where you are.
If think about that for a minute…….it makes sense.
But one thing I have noticed in life in France over the years is that the French are culturally always late. Late for everything. Getting up, going out, going to to work, taking kids to school etc.
Most of the bad driving in France stems from this IMHO. Everyone seems to be in a rush all the time. If peeps got up 20 minutes earlier and structured they day better….hundreds of lifes would be saved on French roads.
Just utter boloocks nonsense from someone who knows nothing in life… I would like to take that journalist on a driving tour of Paris, Lyon, Marseille…a school run around here. He would change his mind very quickly.
My kids can’t drive but they are amazed how calm UK roads are compared to France…
One of the best things of driving in the UK is that you can relax. It is so laid back it blows me away everytime I drive there.
Can’t remember where I read this, but an English driver solved the problem of tailgating, for himself, by buying a second-hand Jaguar in good nick. He’d drive at ordinary safe speeds as he always did until tailgaters appeared, and as soon as they began to signal to overtake him, down would go the throttle leaving them far behind, then he’d slow back to normal speed, and the tailgaters didn’t bother trying to catch up.
La ponctualité est la politesse des rois. In my job I see very few people being late and if they are there had better be good reason. It is unprofessional and the height of bad manners to be late.