Changes aim to reduce cycling accidents in France

The French transport minister is set to consider the recommendations in a new report on how to reduce road rage, confrontation, and accidents between vehicles and cyclists.

The report was ordered by former transport minister François Durovray and former minister in charge of daily safety, Nicolas Daragon. 

Senior civil servant Emmanuel Barbe (inspector general of the administration, and former interministerial delegate for road safety) was asked to prepare the report after a 27-year-old cyclist, Paul Varry, was run over and killed by an SUV driver in Paris in October 2024. The SUV driver was later charged with murder.

At the time Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo said that "it is unacceptable to die in this day and age while cycling in Paris”.

Read also: Drivers who pushed over cyclists ‘for fun’ in France sentenced
Read more: 30% rise in cyclist deaths in France and countryside is worst

New report: Avoid violence and calm tensions

The new report is called ‘Prévenir les violences et apaiser les tensions pour mieux partager la voie publique (Avoid violence and calm tensions to better share the public highway’).

“The recommendations in this report will now be the subject of inter-ministerial work, involving in particular the Ministry of Transport and the Ministry of the Interior, to define the terms of their implementation,” said current Transport Minister Philippe Tabarot, on April 28.

The report’s key recommendations include:

Changing the driving licence theory test

The report suggests that extra questions on road-sharing could be added to the driving licence theory test in France. It already has “numerous questions on the topics of sharing the road and empathy”, said Mr Barbe.

This suggestion has been welcomed by Céline Scornavacca, spokesperson for bicycle users’ group the Fédération française des usagers de la bicyclette. “We cannot change a society by decree. If we train kids from the youngest age, we will have a generation that can better share the road,” she told BFMTV.

However, Mr Barbe added that these extra questions should not cause learners to “overlook other equally important areas of driving instruction”.

Advice for ‘Dutch’ door opening

The driving licence test should also include extra tips on how to open car doors safely from inside the car when parked, namely by using what is known as the ‘Dutch’ method (à la hollandaise). 

This “allows the driver to detect the arrival of a cyclist coming from behind, by moving their torso and therefore their head,’ said Mr Barbe. He said that learner drivers should be asked “to demonstrate that they are familiar with ‘this technique” during their test.

“This can be easily checked during the driving test, so we can check that each candidate knows this technique and then hope that they teach it to their parents and friends,” said Mr Barbe to RMC on April 29.. “But all these are measures to ensure that we respect each other better.

The video below (not affiliated with The Connexion or the report itself) shows how this works.

Changing licence point recovery courses

Mr Barbe suggested that licence point recovery courses could be amended to include more details on sharing roads more compassionately.

Enabling employees to use ‘CPF’ to learn to ride a bike

The report also suggests that employees be allowed to use their compte personnel de formation (CPF, personal training account) to enable them to learn how to “get back on a bike” or “learn to ride a bike’.

So far, “only road professionals (bus drivers, taxi drivers, truck drivers, stunt drivers, etc. can use their CPF to learn or improve their driving skills,” Mr Barbe said.

However the Code de travail (work legal code) suggests that the CPF could be used for cycling training if the bike is being used “for daily travel (and therefore commuting)”.

New offences to better penalise cyclists

Mr Barbe addressed the perception that cyclists escape penalisation even if they break road laws. 

He suggested the “creation of specific offences (e.g. cyclists jumping red lights), which would remain subject to fixed fines”, to ensure that cyclists are required to conform to the rules of the road just as much as drivers.

Read also: List: The sanctions cyclists risk if they break road rules in France
Read more: These are the common and rare cycling signs all road users should know in France 

Compulsory registration of bicycles used professionally

The report suggests that all bicycles used for professional reasons should be registered .

Mr Barbe recommended that “a study be conducted on the registration of bicycles used for parcel delivery (including food), for example by means of a QR code or a plate detectable by CCTV cameras”.

Renaming the ‘code de la route’ to the ‘code de la voie publique’

Mr Barbe also suggested changing the name of the ‘code de la route (road code)’ to the ‘code de la voie publique (code for the public highway)’, to emphasise that the roads are shared public spaces.. 

“Such a name would affirm and give concrete expression to the evolution and diversification of transport, thereby taking it into account more effectively,” he said.