“There is a development of modes of transport on bicycles, scooters, motorcyclists, motorcycles” and therefore “an increasingly shared use of public space in Paris,” he said. on BFMTV and RMC.
“It is the will of the mayor of Paris, it is a political will” and also “the habits of Parisians more and more”. There is therefore “a whole use of public space to be regulated”, affirmed the prefect of police.
“This is what we do,” he assured, referring to road checks carried out “regularly, both to prevent and repress offenses” which concern motor vehicles and cyclists.
A murder investigation was opened after the death of the cyclist late Tuesday afternoon, on Boulevard Malesherbes (8th), “after a dispute with the driver of a vehicle” SUV, the public prosecutor’s office told AFP. Paris.
The driver, aged 52, was arrested on the spot and taken into police custody.
“There is an investigation which is open for facts which suggest that the act could have been voluntary. So we must put this very serious fact aside, not draw any conclusions from it on the use of public roads in Paris for all that,” said Mr. Nuñez.
Asked about violence between road users, he mentioned “extremely futile reasons, which seems to be the case in this case”.
According to him, “the number of accidents, the number of injuries concerning what we call vulnerable users”, including cyclists and pedestrians, “have fallen since the start of the year from “4% to 25% depending on of the category of vulnerable users.
On the question of the regulation of SUVs requested by elected officials, the police chief said he did not want to “enter into that debate”. “It’s a measure that concerns the city of Paris,” he said.
In 2023, 226 cyclists died on the roads of France, exceeding the threshold of 200 deaths for the third year in a row.
