I'm in two mind about this movement.
As I'm not in favour on increasing reliance on fossil fuels, I would theoretically be in favour of Macron's tax, the problem is where it goes, and the fact that it hits the people who can afford it the least. Even if he had organised that part somewhat better, then perhaps a hike of tax on the richer might have been a good idea, alternatively more incentive to go electric. Given the rethink of diesel fuel particles across the world, his timing wasn't brilliant, either, as diesel was never taxed as highly as petrol, so masses of diesel motored cars were sold.
That said, I'm concerned the gilets jaunes don't really appear to have a leader yet. I'm also concerned about driver education. I live in a rural town with a Boulanger. People drive in from distance or from a couple of streets away to buy their fresh patisseries or bread, usually leaving their cars, motor running, for 5-10 minutes depending how long they chat with everyone else in the shop. There's also the issue of increasing amount of heavy transport on the N roads, which are costly to repair. These problems aren't only French ones, by the way.
50PlusCycling, your figures might be right, but you have forgotten there is more than one major city in France. You need to compare the figures between city dwellers and rural. As it stands, that figure you gave is meaningless.