France’s contentious speed-limit reduction is a model for others

WHILE Emmanuel Macron’s conflict with the strikers may be the hottest topic of conversation in French cities, is exercised about another aspect of presidential authority. From July 1st, the limit on single-carriageway rural roads will be reduced from 90kph (55mph) to 80kph (see ). The government maintains that this will save 300-400 lives a year. But opinion amid the and the is solidly against the reduction.This decision is no Jupiterian decree, imposed arbitrarily by the powers in Paris on resentful rurals. Humanity’s love of speed needs to be tempered by considerations of safety and pollution. So the government set the costs of reducing the speed limit on various sorts of roads against the benefits, and found that the sums came out in favour of a lower limit. Such cost-benefit analyses may seem cold-hearted. They involve putting a price on life and balancing it against time gained. But France is right to make a decision involving such trade-offs. Would that other countries were so rational.