In a judgment of October 31, the Council of State reinstated the technical control for two-wheelers, a European obligation whose application is planned for 2023. Thousands of motorcyclists marched this Saturday (and must meet on Sunday) throughout France at the call of the Federation of angry bikers.
After meeting Clément Beaune, Minister of Transport, the biker federations believe that there will be no alternative to the decision of the Council of State, notes motomag.com which lists all the events in the territory.
Several hundred bikers marched in several French cities such as Toulouse, Lille, Bordeaux or Rennes, to protest against the introduction of technical control for two-wheelers. In Toulouse, a procession made up of 900 vehicles, according to figures from the Haute-Garonne prefecture, gathered at the call of several federations of motorcyclists in the region, before taking the A64, called the “Pyrenean ”, and then head towards the ring road at low speed, revving their engines.
The call for mobilization was followed in several other major cities in France, such as Lyon, where 1,400 participants left Place Bellecour to go to the prefecture, while 400 people demonstrated in Perpignan.
In Bordeaux, 850 motorcycles paraded through the city according to the prefecture, some displaying a poster “No to technical control” and “I control, you control, they get rich”, while in Lille, they were 650, according to a source policewoman. In Rennes, 350 to 400 bikers gathered in front of the Ille-et-Vilaine prefecture at the start of the afternoon, also from the neighboring departments of Morbihan and Côtes d’Armor. Mobilizations also took place in Reims and Strasbourg where 250 motorcycles paraded.
“We are here to encourage the government to continue its efforts on alternative solutions to the compulsory technical control for two wheels”, declared Philippe Jéhanno, coordinator of the event for the FFMC 35. “The technical control will be ineffective in terms of safety . In ten years, the number of two-wheelers has increased by 30% while mortality has fallen by 19%. We are the good students of road safety,” he says.
“Why pay someone who will do a check-up every two years when we do it daily? A biker before hitting the road always goes around, checks the essential safety devices, we learn it on the license! “Adds the boss of the Pyrénées-Atlantiques federation.
In Paris, meet on Sunday at 2 p.m. on avenue Foch, at Porte Dauphine. According to angry bikers, this technical control will have no effect on the accident rate of two wheels: less than 0.3% of accidents are due to a mechanical incident. A week earlier, more than 1,500 motorcyclists, from several departments in the south of France, marched in Montpellier to protest against this measure.