France plans crackdown on cyclists breaking traffic laws

New plans from the France's National Council for Road Safety  (CNSR) mean good news and bad news for French cyclists who break the law: fines for offences such as jumping red lights will be reduced, but the CNSR wants ot see them handed down far more often.

According to news site The Local, French cyclists are rarely fined for breaking the road rules.

But after a trial crackdown in Strasbourg was followed by a reduction in crashes involving cyclists, the CNSR plans to change that.

Cyclists in Strasbourg have been fined €48 for riding in the wrong direction instead of the €90 the offence would cost them elsewhere in France.

Crashes involving cyclists went down 37 percent within a year; 833 fines have issued since 2012.

Cycling deaths in France rose six percent to 147 in 2013.

On Monday the CNSR recommended that the National Assembly “extend the principle of lower fines adapted to cyclists to urban zones”.

Jean-Baptiste Mathieu, the mayor of Strasbourg, said that it made no sense to fine cyclists €90.

"It is almost the cost of a bike," he said. "Reducing the fine to €45 is much fairer, and therefore a more realistic threat of punishment. It is a form of prevention."

But French cycling bodies are not impressed. Jean Chaumien, president of a local club said: "We must stop picking on cycling. €45 is still too much, as if cyclists are the worst danger, the biggest criminals in the city!"

Geneviève Laferrère, president of the French federation of bicycle users told Le Parisien: "Cyclists pose less danger to others and we have never seen a bike killing a motorist."

The CNSR acknowledged that it is "often difficult for law enforcement to monitor spreading deviant behaviour”. In order “to promote a more systematic application of sanctions” the CNSR suggested an “awareness campaign to encourage better respect of the rules”.