France

Cycling has been growing in the city of Paris and in its region Île-de-France – this growth is fast, also takes place beyond the city centre, and is bringing many new and inexperienced riders (in 2023, 44% of cyclists had been cycling for less than three years). It was critical to quickly increase road safety for cycling, or this growth would lead to a growth in traffic casualties, and further discourage an important part of the population that can really benefit from cycling (Cycling Cities Barometer found 89% of respondents believe traffic conditions do not allow children to cycle safely).
In France, a significant gender gap remains in cycling: 29% of men cycle regularly compared with only 20% of women, a disparity is largely linked to perceptions of road danger, which highlights the need for continuous, protected cycling infrastructure.
The Île-de-France Cycling Network (VIF) was developed to address this challenge by enabling cyclists to travel on routes that are safe, continuous, easy to follow, and separated from motorised traffic.
The VIF is based on the creation of more than 750 km of high-quality cycling infrastructure crossing 194 municipalities, designed according to six core principles: safety, continuity, comfort, capacity, efficiency, and clarity.
The project directly contributes to the European Commission's Vision Zero objective by applying the Safe System approach, reducing exposure to high-speed motorised traffic, improving the safety of intersections and crossings, and creating a safer road environment for vulnerable road users, including children, women, seniors, and inexperienced cyclists.
Before the project, cycling infrastructure in the region was often fragmented or absent, resulting in unsafe gaps, dangerous intersections, inconsistent signage, and varying quality standards. These shortcomings increased conflicts between cyclists and motor vehicles, particularly affecting vulnerable users such as children, women, seniors, tourists, and new cyclists.
The VIF addresses these issues by creating continuous and protected routes, improving dangerous sections, and eliminating network gaps through a dedicated programme targeting high-risk locations. The results are already visible: according to APUR, the Paris urban planning Agency, women represented 45% of new daily cyclists in 2024, while perceived insecurity remains the main barrier to cycling. This trend illustrates how safer infrastructure can make cycling more inclusive and reduce road safety risks for all users.

There is a significant increase in accidents involving motorway maintenance workers who are vulnerable people.
These accidents mainly concern motorway patrollers- but also all other persons working on motorways to increase the safety of all (police, firemen, emergency services, towing companies).
Most often, they occur in the middle of the day, on sections with good visibility, while the intervention vehicles' signaling equipment is active and clearly visible (rotating lights, luminous arrows on the roof of the vans, cones ...). These accidents are frequently the consequence of episodes of drowsiness or inattention from drivers who are diverted from the road by dangerous use of screens (smartphones, tablets, GPS ...).

The 'EuroTarn' Association was set up in 1997 (by myself) to encourage young people to discover the countries of the European Union, and thus learn about other European cultures and languages. The association's motto from the outset was to inspire young people to 'move in a moving world'.
Between 1997 and 2007, we developed Universities exchanges with various regions. In 2007, we created some actions to attract young people (in the Tarn area) to be more interested in Europe, and to develop their 'European citizenship' and their feeling of belonging to a same European community; And Road safety was one of the very first topic that we decided to tackle with the very first European day of Road safety in April 2007. Therefore we decided to run campaigns to talk about Road safety and... Europe, and we decided to start to visit schools to educate young people.

Participer aux engagements de l’U.E. pour la réduction du nombre de victimes de moitié d’ici 2030 sur les routes d’Europe.
L’alcool au volant toujours très présent :
• En milieu festif
• En entreprise
La recrudescence de la consommation de protoxyde d’azote :
• La sensibilisation sur les dangers des mésusages (effets sur la mobilité).
• Détection du N2O en exclusivité (Forces de l’ordre)

Road deaths are the leading cause of death among young people aged 18 to 24 in France. Given this situation, the Prévention Routière association is convinced that participative prevention by young people for young people is likely to bring about a lasting change in attitudes to road risks.
In 2023, 502 people aged between 18 and 24 were killed on the roads, i.e. almost 10 every week. 52,749 young people were also injured on the road, i.e. more than a thousand are injured every week.
In the first quarter of 2024, the number of road deaths among people aged 18 to 24 years of age rose by 29% compared with the previous year.

En France, près d’une personne sur cinq tuées dans les accidents de la route a entre 18 et 24 ans. Cette tranche d’âge ne représente seulement que 8 % de la population. Au niveau national et international, les accidents de la route correspondent à la première cause de mortalité chez les jeunes.
Afin de sensibiliser sur cette cause, la Fondation VINCI Autoroutes a réalisé une étude sociologique dans le cadre du programme de recherche sur la prévention des risques chez les jeunes conducteur et a par la suite réalisé une campagne digitale intitulée « Les jeunes au volant ». Cette opération avait pour objectif d’examiner le rapport des jeunes à la conduite et à l’automobile.
Le principal objectif de cette campagne est d’avant tout sensibiliser les jeunes âgés de 18 à 25 ans aux différents risques routiers.

A 2018 report from the World Health Organization (WHO) found that the number of road casualties continues to rise, reaching 1.35 million per year. Road crashes have become the main cause of death for children and young people aged 5 to 29. And more than half of road accident victims are vulnerable road users: pedestrians, cyclists, motorcyclists, etc. The probability of dying in a road crash also remains three times higher in low-income countries than in high-income countries, mainly due to a lack of regulations and infrastructures, as well as vehicle standards or first aid efficiency. Faced with these staggering figures, the association Prévention Routière and its partner, the Group Renault Corporate Foundation, have decided to act, by creating the first universal platform intended for all audiences. The Road4us platform aims to raise users' awareness of road hazards, as well as the proper behaviours to adopt to move safely. To accommodate all type of audiences, these prevention messages are spread in the form of simple and entertaining illustrations, designed for everyone. The overall objectives are to reduce road accidents and deaths worldwide, to make road prevention content available to as many people as possible, and to be universal and multilingual. As an initiative with a universal scope, the project targets all road users and aspires to be understood by people from all nationalities and culture, children and adults, illiterate, and literate. This project also offers free resources to print (in both colors and black & white) or to download online to all organizations involved in road safety around the world.