Since last week and at least until Friday 11 December, the police have been carrying out checks in Alençon to check the lighting of cyclists.
They would not respect the highway code, would take reckless risks, they would be called “new drivers”: some cyclists feel that they have been singled out and made to feel guilty. This is a police operation that is likely not to change their minds. In Alençon, the police organize checks to check that cyclists are well-lit. On social networks, everyone is nevertheless warned: “Your police officers will be more particularly attentive to the obligatory equipment of visibility. Warning: the helmet and the retro-reflective vest are not obligatory but strongly recommended” one indicates one.
57% of cyclists ride poorly lit
According to a survey by the Road Safety Authority dating from 2018, cyclists would be 57% to circulate at night in the city without suitable lighting. Proof that there is educational work to be carried out with the population who have adopted the little queen, particularly during the health crisis. Throughout 2019, according to figures from ONISR, the National Interministerial Road Safety Observatory, 65% of cyclists killed or injured in an accident were in a collision with a motor vehicle. Often, “it is a question of a bicycle mown by the rear by a motorist who was looking at his phone” analyzed at the time of the release of the study the association “My bike is a life”. In this type of case, good visibility of the cyclist is not sufficient to avoid the tragedy.