A new report by the French road safety observatory found that cycling-related deaths have been increasing in France in the last three years, particularly in rural parts of the country. Cycling has become more dangerous in France – particularly in rural parts of the country – according to a recent report on road safety.
Published on January 31st, 2023, the report, by the National Inter-ministerial Observatory of Road Safety (ONISR), compared road accidents and deaths in 2022 to those in the three previous years. It found that there has been 30 percent increase in cycling-related deaths since 2019 (the most recent pre-pandemic year) in France.
In 2022 alone, 244 cyclists were killed – a rise of 57 deaths in the past three years.
Deaths concentrated in rural areas
It is the French countryside that has been most impacted, and based on the report’s findings, it may be safer to bicycle in urban areas than in rural ones. In 2022, only one person was killed on a bicycle in Paris.
Rural parts of France saw a 47 percent increase in bicycle-related fatalities when comparing deaths in 2022 and 2019. Of those killed in these incidents, many were over the age of 55 (38 percent). Serious injuries on country roads also increased by 22 percent for cyclists.
The ONISR had already pointed to the trend of danger for cyclists on rural roads in 2021. The Observatory found that mortality for cyclists was increasing at a rate of seven percent for urban areas, in contrast to […]
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