#french-motorways

#french-motorways

Renault plans to reduce its number of engineers by 15 to 20% in the coming two years, meaning up to 2,400 of the current 11,000 to 12,000 engineers worldwide would have to leave the company.

"Is everybody telling the truth? We're not sure," Program Director Kim Comstock told the San Mateo County Transportation Authority on Thursday.

Corentin Roudaut, who once felt overwhelmed by Paris's traffic, found renewed confidence in cycling after the establishment of a segregated bike lane on Boulevard Voltaire. He now actively participates in promoting cycling in the city, witnessing a remarkable transformation in urban mobility and safety over the last decade.

The new checks, part of the EU's new Entry/Exit System (EES), collect digital personal records of third country nationals travelling to the Schengen area and replace the manual stamping of passports.

"About 18 percent of stations are missing at least one type of fuel," the Deputy Minister said on French media RMC/BFMTV.

"This project is symbolic of what we've done over the last 12 years, reshaping the streets and the city," Christophe Najovski, the city's deputy mayor in charge of green spaces, stated during the opening ceremony.

The French government has temporarily authorised the sale of diesel fuel with lower cold-weather resistance to prevent shortages amid rising prices at the pump.

Air France's departure from Orly airport concludes an 80-year relationship, driven by declining passenger demand and a shift towards train travel, particularly post-Covid.

It's tempting to frame autonomous driving as a single leap. In public transport, adoption tends to be incremental - because the system is built for reliability, and new capabilities have to fit into daily operations without disrupting service. That is why a practical strategy is evolution, not revolution: introduce autonomy in a defined domain, learn safely in real operations, and expand capability step-by-step.

In 2025, 171 hours were spent stuck in a jam during peak hours, a figure that is equivalent to five working days, according to data from the navigator company Tom Tom. Based on figures collected by GPS devices, the data reveals that it takes drivers 62.5% longer to cover the same distance they would cover when the traffic circulates more smoothly. During peak hours, the average speed was 18.5 km/h (11.5 mph) and the distance covered in 15 minutes was 4.6 km (2.8 miles).

Official evaluations from National Highways, some of which had been held back by the Department for Transport (DfT) since completion in 2023, showed that a slew of big projects to convert the hard shoulder on the M1, M4, M6 and M25 were rated as poor or very poor value. The AA said the long-awaited reports revealed smart motorways had been a catastrophic waste of time, money and effort, although the government said they showed the project could allow more vehicles to travel safely.

UK motorists are facing higher vehicle ownership costs after Chancellor Rachel Reeves confirmed changes to Vehicle Excise Duty (VED) that will increase charges from April 2026. The policy, implemented through HM Treasury fiscal reforms, forms part of a wider transition toward emissions-based transport taxation as fuel duty revenues decline. Officials say the system is designed to balance climate targets with long-term funding for road infrastructure. The steepest increases will affect motorists buying high-pollution cars.

The Tzen 4, a fully electric bus rapid transit line operating largely on segregated lanes, entered service on 10 February 2026 in the southern Île-de-France region. After several years of infrastructure works (the start of commercial operations was expected in 2024 ...), the new corridor connects Viry-Châtillon to Corbeil-Essonnes, serving the municipalities of Grigny, Ris-Orangis and Évry-Courcouronnes along a 14-kilometre route.

Europe's ageing fleet of nearly 2,000 ferries are a large but overlooked source of foul air in coastal cities. Emissions of sulphurous oxides toxic gases that smell like burnt matches and rotten eggs react to form tiny particles that penetrate the lungs, ride the bloodstream and damage organs throughout the body.

The first round of local elections happens next Sunday (March 15th), with 34,000 communes, from tiny villages up to the major cities, heading out to elect the local mayors who play a huge part in shaping the life and infrastructure of each area.

From 'teaching' cameras to the multi-function beasts that can issue tickets for eight separate driving offences, France has a wide variety of different speed cameras. France has thousands of speed cameras (known as radars) along its huge road network, and being caught by one of them can result in a fine, points, losing your licence or even - in extreme cases - jail time.

The European Central Bank said Friday it had fined French bank Credit Agricole €7.55 million ($9 million) for failing to properly identify climate change-related risks that could affect its balance sheet. "Credit Agricole did not sufficiently assess the materiality of its climate-related and environmental risks" by a deadline set after an investigation in 2024, the ECB said in a statement, adding the bank was late by "75 full days".