Getting out of the denial of road violence

CLike other news items, what happened on Tuesday October 15 in the Madeleine district of Paris says a lot about the state of our society. Paul Varry, a 27-year-old cyclist, died late in the afternoon, crushed by a car after an altercation with the driver of the vehicle.

That the victim is a community activist committed to the use of bicycles, that the perpetrator, aged 52, was behind the wheel of an SUV and that, according to the prosecution, he “turned its wheels towards” of the young man “and resumed moving forward in his direction”transforms a fatal event, already rare in itself – out of 226 cyclists who died in accidents in 2023, one was killed in Paris – into a social issue. That the Minister of Transport did not show the slightest emotion after this tragedy also takes on political meaning.

On the surface, it is a very “Parisian” story, transforming into a tragedy one of the many disputes with motor vehicles that cyclists, more and more numerous in large cities, but also in campaigns since the Covid-19 epidemic. Hence the intensity of the emotion aroused.

However, it would be an error to see in the death of Paul Varry only an unfortunate consequence of the tensions caused by the trivialization of the use of bicycles in the capital. On the one hand, because it was most likely not an accident, the motorist was indicted for “murder”. On the other hand, because the majority of accidents fatal to cyclists take place on rural roads where, moreover, altercations between cyclists and motorists with dangerous behavior occur, comparable to that of Tuesday in Paris.

Automotive aggression

Certainly, the drama tends to illustrate the difficulties of cohabitation of mobility in a society marked by the rise of individualism and incivility. It is part of a positive context of drastic reduction in the number of cars which requires changes in the behavior of all users. While the ideal of “soft mobility” clashes with the often anarchic behavior of bicycle users, the clichés of virility, speed and efficiency conveyed by automobile advertising clash with urban reality. It’s up to everyone to manage their frustrations.

Or la road rage“driving anger”, where annoyance can degenerate into tragedy, a phenomenon long identified by Americans, remains ignored in France, a country where 32% of motorists nevertheless admit that they sometimes hit vehicles whose drivers are driving them. annoying. We must move away from the denial surrounding automobile aggression and the tolerance towards road violence, remember that 84% of those presumed responsible for fatal accidents are men. Testimonies abound of situations of endangering the lives of others, documented by videos but neglected by the police.

The responses to these abuses involve the repression of offenses, but also through information and education, which are deficient today. For cyclists to learn the basic rules of cycling; motorists to respect bicycle users. It is up to everyone to practice the basic courtesy due to pedestrians. Everyone must know, when getting behind the wheel, that a cyclist, who weighs a hundred times less than an SUV, has no chance against him. Paul Varry was a victim of the law of the strongest. It cannot prevail.