Driving in Paris

COMMENT

The people mover approached the roundabout at a sensible speed with its left indicator flashing, yet the front passenger's eyes widened in alarm nevertheless.

Far from indicating the vehicle was turning left, as it would in Australia, the driver was conveying to traffic that the vehicle wasn't about to stop. Furthermore, it was going to bully its way across the intersection, in front of three lanes of vehicles, to turn right.

And that's precisely what happened. The light blue Citroen pushed its way across the intersection, with the driver weaving around cars, pedestrians, cyclists and scooters in all directions.

At the wheel of the C4 Grand Picasso was a blonde Parisian woman named Peggy, who was one of three drivers ferrying Aussie journalists around her home turf on behalf of Citroen.

The roundabout, located at the Arc de Triomphe, is unique in Paris in that cars entering the intersection take priority over those already in the roundabout. Picture a roundabout in Australia where the cars already in the intersection have to slow and give way to cars approaching from the left.

Without that important snippet of information, Peggy's manoeuvre bore all the hallmarks of a kamikaze mission.

In her spare time, Peggy sings the blues and has released three CDs, but during the day she's an assertive, intelligent driver who can cut travel time significantly by driving decisively, using her knowledge of the road network in Paris to the full and understanding that her fellow road users are quite forgiving when it comes to sharing the road.

In Australia, pushing your way in front of a car while merging into another lane will likely provoke a honk of the horn, a flash of headlights, a raised fist or some other gesture of unsavoury note.

Peggy herself says it's best not to give other drivers "too much warning", but compared with some Australian drivers she indicates she's changing lanes with all the advance notice of the Dead Sea scrolls.

Mostly, the French are very laconic and tolerant on the road. They appear to know that letting someone in front of you means that the car in front will be able to proceed on its way and be out of your way that much sooner. Furthermore, the French place much greater priority on traffic flow than rigidly adhering to the letter of the law. In a city with far fewer intersections controlled by traffic lights, getting places with the minimum of fuss is of paramount importance.

That – minimal fuss – means of course not bowling people over or denting panels. But the French subscribe to a collective view that's markedly different from the Australian view of what's safe driving. And when it comes to 'aberrant' behaviour, there's a much higher level of acceptance in France than in Australia.

Sad to say, but we're often a nation of tut-tutters and wowsers on the road. We stick in the right lane and won't let others past if our 10%-error-prone speedometer tells us that we're on the legal limit. For much the same reason we're reluctant to let others merge in front of us when a left lane ends. And as for allowing other cars to enter from a side road, fundamental lack of courtesy and consideration prevents us from doing the right thing. Every one of us thinks we're better than other road users and we should be policing the herd – even those of us distracted by texting, updating the Facebook profile or reaching for a ciggy.

And those drivers who are less experienced may feel too intimidated by the wannabe V8 Supercar drivers or Mad Max clones. Those same 'experienced' drivers often lack situational awareness or care for others.

They would apparently rather see you, in the left lane, collect a cyclist than let you move across in front of them. If I had to make the choice, I would 'gladly' sacrifice the sheet metal integrity of your car over taking the life of a cyclist. If the choice is between your no-claims bonus or a culpable driving charge and custodial sentence for me, that's no choice at all...

Ironically, for a nation boasting such a low road toll, it's kill or be killed on our roads, figuratively speaking. Ours is the wrong sort of culture, it exacerbates road rage and makes a mockery of all the social engineering campaigns by road safety authorities over a period of decades.

In fairness to urban drivers in Australia, our road system inflames road rage and other poor conduct. The proliferation of traffic lights in Melbourne, for instance, is excessive and bordering on obscene. In peak hour lights at each intersection delay traffic upstream rather than have that traffic append itself to the column at the next intersection. It's symptomatic of the lack of foresight and budget on the part of town planners and road-building authorities. It also speaks to misguided infrastructure priorities. 

As confronting as Parisian traffic is – after the rigid traffic flow of our capital cities – there's an element of purpose, focus, skill – and yes, tolerance – in French drivers that we seldom see here.

I wish there were more of that here in Oz.

Pictured: Peggy, Sophie and Beatrice – Citroen drivers par excellence