David Thomas JacksonA world first!
Today, France has banned domestic flights for journeys possible in less than two-and-a-half hours by train.
France also aims to get 9% of the population on bicycles by 2024, up from 3% (The Netherlands is already at 27%).
Probertd8@DTJackson But then SNCF is generally an exceptional train service - What can we offer?🤔🙄
Darwin Woodka@DTJackson
This is the way
This is the way
Virginia Holloway@darwinwoodka @DTJackson makes me wonder how many US flights could be replaced with a train journey of 2.5 hours or less. Not many I bet. Our rail infrastructure is so crumby.
GATEKEEPERBrilliant. The USA sucks for trains. SUCKs
We can't even keep them on the tracks.
Kevin Karhan 
@DTJackson nobody wants to fly such short distances or even deal with the #SecurityTheater of airports anyway...
Nicole ParsonsNo wonder #KochNetwork funds right wing yellow vest fascism attacking French democracy.
Wow!
Don Hawkins - W7DAH@DTJackson Do the elderly ride bicycles in traffic?
Laust@donhawkins @DTJackson in the Netherlands they do :)
Jeroen van Bergen@Laust @donhawkins @DTJackson Yes, but to people not familiar with Dutch infrastructure: a lot of roads have separate bike paths. A lot of neighbourhoods are designed in such a way that bikes can use direct routes but cars have to make detours. On top of that: almost every driver also rides a bike, so drivers are generally well aware how a cyclist experiences traffic.
@jeroenvanbergen @Laust @DTJackson
Curious to know how road maintenance is funded there?
@donhawkins @jeroenvanbergen @DTJackson in Denmark the car owners actually pay enough in taxes and fees that they almost cover infrastructure and negative externalities (so they pay ALOT for their privileges).
@Laust @donhawkins @DTJackson Interesting! In The Netherlands car owners also pay a road tax to the province. The amount depends on weight, type of fuel and how polluting the car is. If all of this money is used for provincial road maintenance? I don’t know.
@Laust @jeroenvanbergen @DTJackson
In the US there is a fuel tax, but then there is push back because 100%-cyclists aren't sharing the expense.
Major Denis Bloodnok@donhawkins @Laust @jeroenvanbergen @DTJackson Which is, of course, absurd; road wear varies with the fourth power of axle weight.
@denisbloodnok @donhawkins @jeroenvanbergen @DTJackson oh, it's much worse as it turns out that transport and logistics companies (they ones which mainly use trucks as least) pay very little in taxes compared to how much wear and tear on the roads and climate change they are responsible for.
@donhawkins @Laust @DTJackson Not an expert, but basically there are 3 types of rods: national highways, main provincial roads and municipal roads. They are funded in different ways, I think. Most bike paths are next to municipal or provincial roads. Most national highway bridges have bike paths, but highways in general do not. Note that bike paths are not really discussed, they are more or less assumed to be there.
Thomas Favre-Bulle 🏳🌈@DTJackson There's so many caveats barely any flight is actually banned.
flo@DTJackson would love to see this for #switzerland as well
paillp@DTJackson Unfortunately this is still insufficient, France Emmanuel Macron asked EU to stop enforcing such measure, the dude is just a phony, his government is corrupted, crooked, an close to felony. They did this because they have rejected the 148 other really impactful decisions of the Citizens Convention.
In france 1/10 flight is a private jet, airports just get bigger and more numerous. All that glitters is not gold.
@DTJackson In the end, this just affects poor people ability to move as planes are much, much cheaper than trains.
Macron against the poor, again.
Those 10% who own private jets are not controlled, regulated, and this measure does not apply to their private jets.
Stanisław Zlotos 
@DTJackson a good policy, although two things should be noted :
1. The citizen convention for the climate, who originally proposed the mesure, was advocating for 4h, not 2h30. (Proposition SD-E2, p253 on the final report)
2. The government sadly broke its own commitment this morning, just after the application of the law, by using a jet for a 1h-long flight. This feels very odd for us, no government position should justify such a privilege.
Pierre Bourdon@DTJackson that new law is designed to do as little as possible while bringing positive headlines. In practice, a total of 34 daily flights are impacted.
No route flying to/from CDG is impacted, because CDG has its own TGV station and so the 2h30 needs to be from the CDG station and not from Paris.
CDG-LYS can be done by train in 2h from CDG but then they decided "oh actually we don't like the train timetable" so it's also still allowed for no good reason.
Datenegassie ❌@DTJackson Okay cool but last month Macron visited the Netherlands by THREE private jets even though it's just over 3 hours by train. (And the trip from the airport to the Hague was done by cars which I'm pretty sure drove from France anyway)
I think that the ban should apply to these small trips too.
I think that the ban should apply to these small trips too.
*sigh*Ber nard@DTJackson yet my Dutch 140cm 2-way cyclepath is nowhere near as busy as the 4-lane highway (4* 350cm + 2*>300cm emergency lane)