Today, each French citizen travels 35 times farther on the roads, by means other than walking, than they did in 1900. Back then, there were only 3,500 cars on the roads, and some 5 million horse-drawn vehicles. However, the risk of dying on the roads is actually lower today. The number of road deaths peaked in 1972 at more than five times its current level, but the official report “La sécurité routière en France” (Road Safety in France) details only the small measures taken after 1972.