Paris is looking good

French authorities are considering new laws that would allow cyclists to run red lights in Paris.

They are considering bike-only traffic signals that would be placed beneath regular signals.

At certain times cyclists would be allowed to ride through intersections while cars are stopped at the red lights.

Why?

They are trying to encourage bike riding in order to get cars off the road and this is is enhanced by quicker bike rides.

Also they have recognised that getting bikes away from cars ahead of the lights turning green actually reduces accidents between bikes and cars.

I can explain this by noting that the risks of collisions between bikes and cars is correlated to the gap in their speeds – the greater the gap the higher chance of collisions.

A slowly accelerating bike and a rapidly accelerating car epitomises accident risk.