Photo: petrophoto.net
With all due respect for French, riding or not, certain things are very amiss in this country. If you’ve kept an eye on us lately, you probably know about the motorcycle ban which is envisioned for the French capital. Long story short, the Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo is trying to pass a bill which is supposed to relieve the city from pollution. While the goal is of course a very noble one, the means for attaining it are incredibly stupid, and include banning motorcycles built before 2000 from entering a large area of the city.
One of France’s largest and most active motorcyclist rights lobby group, the FFMC (French Federation of Angry Bikers), who has stages massive protests in the past, was quick to reply that a new one will be organized on February 8, the date when the law proposal should be voted.
And if you thought that Madamme Hidalgo is happy with what she intends to do, think again. According to the same source, she allegedly declared that she’d like to see no bike manufactured earlier than… wait for it… 2015 in Paris by 2020. And this in the absence of similar declarations about real plans for upgrading the public transport network or guaranteeing impeccable flow and working hours (read 24/7) for busses, metro and all.
We are waiting to see what’s going to happen today in Paris, but this simply can’t end well. The French are quite keen on not taking this kind of BS and even if the February 8 protest does not take place, they can’t deny the riders their right of assembly forever. Later and most likely in larger numbers, they WILL flood Paris.
What’s truly disturbing in this story is the fact that local authorities seem to misinterpret the results of so many pollution studies around the world and apparently even in the Paris area. None of these indicate motorcycles as a major source of pollution, while all fingers point at diesel cars. Even though I also drive a diesel van, I have to admit the reality.
Still, even though a lot of motorcycles pollute the air more than the latest generation of cars, a real life fact cannot be ignored. People riding bikes and scooters need significantly less time to get form any given point A to any given point B in the city. That is, Madamme Hidalgo, less engine use, less fuel burnt and less pollution. How can a bike running say, 20 minutes be more polluting than what we get from a (diesel) car taking 70 minutes to cover the same distance?
Stay tuned, this is going to be funny, even though I am not sure that this will be the funny kind of fun.
Police says “naaah”
Remember the Little Britain TV series with the obnoxious secretary whose omnipresent answer was “computer says naaah”? Good, now try this with a French accent and superimpose the face of the Police representatives in Paris. That’s right, the Police did not approve the protest, but we don’t have yet their motivation, and neither does motorbiker, who is watching this story first-hand.And if you thought that Madamme Hidalgo is happy with what she intends to do, think again. According to the same source, she allegedly declared that she’d like to see no bike manufactured earlier than… wait for it… 2015 in Paris by 2020. And this in the absence of similar declarations about real plans for upgrading the public transport network or guaranteeing impeccable flow and working hours (read 24/7) for busses, metro and all.
We are waiting to see what’s going to happen today in Paris, but this simply can’t end well. The French are quite keen on not taking this kind of BS and even if the February 8 protest does not take place, they can’t deny the riders their right of assembly forever. Later and most likely in larger numbers, they WILL flood Paris.
What’s truly disturbing in this story is the fact that local authorities seem to misinterpret the results of so many pollution studies around the world and apparently even in the Paris area. None of these indicate motorcycles as a major source of pollution, while all fingers point at diesel cars. Even though I also drive a diesel van, I have to admit the reality.
Still, even though a lot of motorcycles pollute the air more than the latest generation of cars, a real life fact cannot be ignored. People riding bikes and scooters need significantly less time to get form any given point A to any given point B in the city. That is, Madamme Hidalgo, less engine use, less fuel burnt and less pollution. How can a bike running say, 20 minutes be more polluting than what we get from a (diesel) car taking 70 minutes to cover the same distance?
Stay tuned, this is going to be funny, even though I am not sure that this will be the funny kind of fun.
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