A week after the last transport strikes ended in France, an overview of the results. On the downside, there were many people hit by the strikes, since there were practically no trains, metros or buses. So either you tried to get into one of the very rare trains (by getting up at 4 am, home again at midnight), or you braved the roads saturated by 100's of kilometers of traffic jams around Paris.
Many people living in Paris tried getting to work using alternative forms of transportation. Bicycles, rollers, skateboards and pogo sticks. Result: a 70% increase of accidents in Paris !!
The winners? Obviously it was us motorcycle riders. With at one time, 500 kilometers of traffic jams, it was even more difficult than normal for motorcycles to reach their final destination. But in the end, you still managed to get to work at a reasonable time, maybe a few minutes slower than normal.
The biggest sign that the form of transportation in Paris was the motorcycle is to be seen in the explosion of motorcycle taxi usage. One such motorcycle taxi service, CityBird  , has on average of 20-30 new clients per day, with 110-120 trips per day. During the strikes they had 450 clients, with 200 trips. Some riders were pulling 15 hour days.
All By Bike had so many requests they stopped all bookings for a week in advance.
Paris Motos had so many requests they had to close down their phone reservation system.
Same applied for HKS Moto Jet who were swamped by requests for their 16 Honda Goldwings.
So next time there's a country wide transportation strike, remember to book a motorcycle taxi. It's the only way of getting around...
Via: Moto-Journal
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