French amnesty on all driving offences.
26 March 2002, 09:47 AM
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I found this story on Reuters. This really is taking the driver vote too far!
Neil.
PARIS, March 25 (Reuters) - It's election time in France and pedestrians had better watch out.
For with both main presidential candidates pledging to stick to a time-honoured tradition of bestowing pardons for so-called minor road offences, speeding, U-turns, illegal parking and other driving excesses are now the order of the day.
Road safety advocates say reckless driving in the run-up to the election causes up to 500 additional road deaths. A simple walk down a city street shows that drivers are parking anywhere they want these days.
But the pardon has been around so long that neither President Jacques Chirac nor his Socialist rival, Prime Minister Lionel Jospin -- now neck-and-neck in the polls -- have dared to scrap it.
"The presidential amnesty is stupid electioneering," said Jean Sivardiere, head of national transport federation FNAUT.
"But the candidates are afraid of the drivers' vote," he told Reuters. "For pedestrians, this is bad news."
Decried as a glaring example of how French heads of state ape their royal predecessors, the pardon dates back to 1965, when General Charles de Gaulle slipped it into a general amnesty of political crimes after the Algerian war for independence.
Many French drivers feel they have a right to drive fast and aggressively and the tradition of the presidential amnesty has been championed by a vociferous automobile press.
Reacting to pressure from groups like FNAUT, both Chirac and Jospin are less generous with their pardons than candidates in previous elections, insisting that any newly-committed offence will only be subject to the amnesty if it is not dangerous.
But the problem is defining which offences add to the danger and inconvenience of other road-users and which do not.
PAVEMENT AS CAR PARK
Chirac told the regional daily Republicain Lorrain on Monday he would only pardon "non-dangerous parking offences" if elected on May 5. Jospin says he will turn a blind eye to misdemeanours which would not incur penalties on a driver's licence.
But Jospin's approach would not sanction the use of mobile telephones at the wheel -- a widespread habit recently outlawed after alarm at the number of accidents it was causing.
"In general, the amnesty sends out a signal that drivers can take liberties with the rules of the road," Sivardiere said.
In one hour, the Paris daily Le Parisien recently counted 58 cars blazing through one set of suburban traffic lights on red.
The amnesty has also encouraged Parisian drivers, already engaged in a desperate battle for a scarce parking space, to come up with ever more audacious solutions.
Pedestrians in the capital are frequently forced out into the road as pedestrian crossings and chunks of pavement have in recent months turned into impromptu -- and free -- car parks.
Assessing exactly how many accidents are caused by the amnesty is difficult. The accident rate started to rise around September last year, but some commentators have said other factors, including poor weather, have contributed to the gain.
Yet the country's already high road mortality rate of 8,000 deaths a year is attracting growing concern. Sivardiere said he hoped the amnesty tradition could be scrapped altogether by the time of the next election in five years.
The central town of Villefranche-sur-Saone has scrapped its parking fees until after the election because it was unfair to ticket drivers for exceeding parking meter time while others left their cars just anywhere without fear of being punished.
"It is an absurd response to an absurd situation," shrugged Mayor Jean-Jacques Pignard on LCI television.
(Paris newsroom +33 1 4221 5339, fax +33 1 4236 1072 paris.newsroom@reuters.com))
Neil.
PARIS, March 25 (Reuters) - It's election time in France and pedestrians had better watch out.
For with both main presidential candidates pledging to stick to a time-honoured tradition of bestowing pardons for so-called minor road offences, speeding, U-turns, illegal parking and other driving excesses are now the order of the day.
Road safety advocates say reckless driving in the run-up to the election causes up to 500 additional road deaths. A simple walk down a city street shows that drivers are parking anywhere they want these days.
But the pardon has been around so long that neither President Jacques Chirac nor his Socialist rival, Prime Minister Lionel Jospin -- now neck-and-neck in the polls -- have dared to scrap it.
"The presidential amnesty is stupid electioneering," said Jean Sivardiere, head of national transport federation FNAUT.
"But the candidates are afraid of the drivers' vote," he told Reuters. "For pedestrians, this is bad news."
Decried as a glaring example of how French heads of state ape their royal predecessors, the pardon dates back to 1965, when General Charles de Gaulle slipped it into a general amnesty of political crimes after the Algerian war for independence.
Many French drivers feel they have a right to drive fast and aggressively and the tradition of the presidential amnesty has been championed by a vociferous automobile press.
Reacting to pressure from groups like FNAUT, both Chirac and Jospin are less generous with their pardons than candidates in previous elections, insisting that any newly-committed offence will only be subject to the amnesty if it is not dangerous.
But the problem is defining which offences add to the danger and inconvenience of other road-users and which do not.
PAVEMENT AS CAR PARK
Chirac told the regional daily Republicain Lorrain on Monday he would only pardon "non-dangerous parking offences" if elected on May 5. Jospin says he will turn a blind eye to misdemeanours which would not incur penalties on a driver's licence.
But Jospin's approach would not sanction the use of mobile telephones at the wheel -- a widespread habit recently outlawed after alarm at the number of accidents it was causing.
"In general, the amnesty sends out a signal that drivers can take liberties with the rules of the road," Sivardiere said.
In one hour, the Paris daily Le Parisien recently counted 58 cars blazing through one set of suburban traffic lights on red.
The amnesty has also encouraged Parisian drivers, already engaged in a desperate battle for a scarce parking space, to come up with ever more audacious solutions.
Pedestrians in the capital are frequently forced out into the road as pedestrian crossings and chunks of pavement have in recent months turned into impromptu -- and free -- car parks.
Assessing exactly how many accidents are caused by the amnesty is difficult. The accident rate started to rise around September last year, but some commentators have said other factors, including poor weather, have contributed to the gain.
Yet the country's already high road mortality rate of 8,000 deaths a year is attracting growing concern. Sivardiere said he hoped the amnesty tradition could be scrapped altogether by the time of the next election in five years.
The central town of Villefranche-sur-Saone has scrapped its parking fees until after the election because it was unfair to ticket drivers for exceeding parking meter time while others left their cars just anywhere without fear of being punished.
"It is an absurd response to an absurd situation," shrugged Mayor Jean-Jacques Pignard on LCI television.
(Paris newsroom +33 1 4221 5339, fax +33 1 4236 1072 paris.newsroom@reuters.com))
26 March 2002, 09:56 AM
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Somewhere there's a happy medium to be struck between the British approach ("bleed 'em dry, criminalise 'em...") and the French approach ("laissez faire" - very appropriate expression).
26 March 2002, 11:05 AM
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I think a lot of french drivers are so far gone, that trying to catch/punish them etc would be a administrative nightmare.
I've not drivin in central paris but have taxi'ed there a few times and it's just mayhem - but great fun from the back of a cab (Seat belt on, hold tight!). Champ-d-elise is mad and bizarre in the way that, somehow, it works!.
I've not drivin in central paris but have taxi'ed there a few times and it's just mayhem - but great fun from the back of a cab (Seat belt on, hold tight!). Champ-d-elise is mad and bizarre in the way that, somehow, it works!.
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