Road users take far too many risks, study finds

According to a study carried out by Opinion Way for the MMA, the French now use an average of 2.2 modes of transport per week for their regular trips. However, the more and more frequent appearance of these modes of travel unfortunately leads to more and more risky behavior. Some users would be more dangerous than others.

Electric scooters, scooters, bicycles… dangerous users?

For their daily journeys, the French prefer the car (85%) and walking (71%). They are nevertheless 22% to take their bike at least once a week, 9% to use an electric scooter or other motorized personal transport device (EDPM) and 8% to opt for a motorized two-wheeler.

While most of these modes of travel are considered convenient, they are also considered dangerous. Users of scooters, bicycles and scooters are respectively 34%, 32% and 27% to consider their means of transport risky, especially in town. But the risks also come from others. Thus, for more than two-thirds of pedestrians, the greatest dangers are electric scooters or bicycles on the sidewalk (68%), ahead of inattentive motorists (65%).

If the dangerous behavior of motorists (speeding, stops and burned out lights, etc.) no longer needs to be demonstrated, no one today is safe from putting their life or that of others in danger. Thus, 61% of motorized two-wheeler drivers admit to exceeding speed limits and 52% have already made dangerous overtaking. Cyclists are not left out. They are indeed 40% to admit not always respecting the lights or even changing lanes without warning other road users behind them.

For their part, half of scooter riders do not always give priority to pedestrians, while 44% ride while using their phone. Even pedestrians behave dangerously since 79% of them recognize crossing outside pedestrian crossings and 35% walk or cross without looking ahead.

The rules of the Highway Code: forgotten or poorly known

This study also demonstrates that certain rules of the Highway Code are not well known – such as the fact that the electric scooter is prohibited for children under 12 (50% of respondents are unaware of this), that bicycles can sometimes circulate in the opposite direction of car traffic (49%), that it is forbidden to ride a bicycle on the sidewalk after 8 years (46%) or even that electric vehicles must absolutely travel on a cycle path when there is has one (40%).

Study was carried out by OpinionWay for MMA, from September 21 to 28, 2022, with a sample of 1000 people representative of the French population aged 18 and over, but also with an additional 104 regular users of electric scooters ( or other EDPM) and 108 motorcycle/scooter enthusiasts.