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It is paradoxical that questions of road safety seem less acute in suburban areas when compared with town centres. The fact remains however that households there, often with children, are more and more motorised and they are generating annually more and more suburban car journeys than in town centres. Therefore, for both financial reasons as well as current perceptions, this question is frequently put to one side as subsidiary. The case relating to the south of Clermont draws particular attention to those factors which clash with certain preconceptions relating to daily life in such neighbourhoods. These towns in effect are refusing to face up to this situation, and the question of the lack of road safety is more than once outweighed by the strength of local relations.