Tree-lined roads in rural France look idyllic but are deadly
PASSING through wide fields of wheat and potatoes, route D915 links the northern French port of Dieppe with Pontoise, north-west of Paris. On a straight stretch of single-carriageway road, lined with sycamores, cars tear along above the 90kph (55mph) speed limit, dodging oncoming traffic to overtake. Periodically, as on other similar roads, vehicles collide, killing their occupants. To curb the country’s accident rate, the French government is reducing the speed limit on country roads from July 1st. In rural France, few recent policies have prompted such indignation.
Speeding is the main cause of fatal traffic accidents in France, most of which, as elsewhere, take place on single-lane roads that lack a central reservation. Cars crash either into each other, or into one of the shade-providing trees that line many country routes. It was on just such a road that Albert Camus, at the age of 46, and his publisher, Michel Gallimard, were killed when their car collided with a roadside plane tree in 1960. Today, Edouard Philippe, the prime minister, says that reducing the speed limit to 80kph on roads that are not protected by a central reservation—about 400,000km of them—will save 300-400 lives a year.
French roads have a hold on the collective imagination. In the early 20th century, Michelin developed its guides to encourage touring motorists to potter along them, making the odd detour for a steak frites (and to wear out their tyres). For tourists, motorways and chain-run service stations have long since taken over that role. But for those who live and work in rural France, roads are not for dawdling but getting about, and fast.
Rural France is not happy. Over 2m people have already signed a petition to protest. Fully 86% of rural folk are against the reduction in the speed limit, next to 74% of the French as a whole. Parisians, for the most part, are unbothered. But the further away from big cities one gets, the more people are fed up with the measure. Politicians say that it is one of the most frequently raised subjects of discontent among voters in rural areas. At a time when President Emmanuel Macron is trying to push through difficult reforms, some of his own deputies are perplexed as to why he is allowing it. As one of them points out, a reduction in the speed limit was not in his election manifesto, and the push has come from the prime minister. Mr Macron now says that the measure will be tested over two years, and then reviewed.