“Mondial du Deux Roues” with a Parisian flavour.

PARIS, France (Sep 27) - At a time when the Parisian Council is trying to find solutions to improve its traffic mobility, the French International Motorbike Show will be held from 1 to 9 October at Paris Expo Porte de Versailles. With petrol prices rocketing, traffic congestion and parking fines, Parisians are turning more and more to powered two-wheelers. The Paris Council Authorities have counted passenger car traffic on the major Capital boulevards and recorded a drop of 3% since a similar count in 2004. This tendency is confirmed by a –8% drop in new car registrations. Powered two-wheelers have become an increasingly popular way to beat traffic congestion and registrations of new PTWs have shot up between 5 and 10% for some makes. This tendency is confirmed by the French market : its progression – and essentially that of Light Motorcycles (125cc <+11kW) and Scooters – tends to demonstrate the evolution of user behaviour. Quoting Patrick Barraud of Peugeot Motocycles, “An important proportion of PTW buyers nowadays are women. One also notes that distances are increasing, which means that riders undertake longer journeys on their motorised two-wheelers”. Adds Jacques Compagne, ACEM Secretary General, “Motorised Two-Wheelers are indeed an efficient alternative to problems of urban mobility. City-dwellers as well as commuters are requiring alternatives to problems of daily traffic congestion. A better integration of Motorised Two-Wheelers in transport policies would greatly improve urban life”. The example of the City of London speaks for itself : since the implementation of the “Congestion Charge System” of which PTWs are exempted, their numbers have increased by up to 20% and safety fears have proven groundless : despite the significant increase in PTW use by commuters, casualty numbers have fallen by around 13%. London’s example shows that it is possible to integrate PTWs in traffic systems, provide favourably for them and see the results in better motorcycle safety. London is also running pilot schemes to allow PTWs to use bus lanes on a number of routes. Initial data after 18 months of the scheme shows that PTW access to bus lanes does not have a negative impact on safety.