Rural networks

In 2024, the road network in metropolitan France will cover nearly 1.1 million kilometres, including nearly 380,000 km of national, departmental and territorial roads. Traffic on a network or the accident rate on that network are not correlated with its length. In general, the national road network (motorways and national roads) accounts for 1% of the network but 8% of traffic and 6% of fatalities. Departmental roads account for 34% of the network's length but 59% of fatalities.

According to the ISOMERR-Ménages study conducted by Ifsttar on 2008 data, the risk of being killed per billion kilometres travelled is significantly higher for rural residents than for city dwellers. A motorist living in a rural area is 1.5 times more likely to be killed than a resident of a medium-sized urban area (20,000 to 100,000 inhabitants), and 2.7 times more likely than a resident of a large urban area (more than 100,000 inhabitants).

Outside urban areas, 43% of people killed in mainland France in 2024 were killed in single-vehicle accidents. In addition, 26% of road users are killed in head-on collisions, 12% in side collisions and 5% in rear-end collisions.

In 2024, vulnerable road users accounted for 35% of fatalities outside urban areas and 54% of serious injuries. Single-vehicle accidents accounted for 36% of fatalities involving two-wheeled motor vehicles and 41% of fatalities involving bicycles. In addition, 94 pedestrians were killed: 64% were struck by a light vehicle and 29% by a light commercial vehicle or heavy goods vehicle. Finally, motorists account for 58% of deaths.