It was one of Anne Hidalgo's campaign promises: the mayor of Paris wanted to lower the speed limit on the Paris ring road from 70 km/h to 50 km/h. As a result, the millions of motorists who use the Paris ring road every day have been forced to slow down progressively from section to section since October 1. This is quite a change for users of the ring road, who have already had to adapt to the lane reserved for athletes during the competition, and then to carpooling and buses.
The speed limit was lowered in two stages, with an initial reduction at the beginning of the month, before the entire boulevard périphérique went by on October 10, except for emergency vehicles. 160 signs were installed in six nights by Paris City Hall staff, and the speed of the radars has now been changed to flash for speeding as of this Thursday.
According to traffic specialists, a 50 km/h ring road would not only reduce pollution and noise pollution, but would also make traffic flow more smoothly. According to its calculations, Bruitparif estimates that a reduction in traffic speed could reduce noise by 2 to 3 decibels. As part of its Climate Plan, the City of Paris intends to change traffic on this major Parisian thoroughfare, which reaches a median speed of 30-45km/h at rush hour.
As a reminder, the maximum speed limit on the ring road used to be 90km/h before 1993, and was reduced to 70km/h in 2014. Dan Lert, the mayor's deputy in charge of ecological transition, told a conference that this could prevent 1,500 premature deaths on the outskirts of the capital, with less road-traffic-related nitrogen dioxide in the air.
A measure that may well be short-lived, as the government and many workers in the Paris region are strongly opposed to the limit. François Durovray, the new Minister of Transport, said that Anne Hidalgo"cannot decide alone" and that there were "consequences beyond the ring road".
Paris: the end of inter-files for motorcycles on the ring road with the switch to 50 km/h
The changeover of the Paris ring road to 50 km/h, which runs from October 1 to 10, 2024, marks a turning point for motorcyclists. With this speed reduction, inter-file traffic, which enabled two-wheelers to squeeze in between cars, will no longer be permitted on this lane. This experiment, extended until December 31, 2024, is in fact only permitted on roads limited to 70 km/h or more. [Read more]
Paris: the end of inter-files for motorcycles on the ring road with the switch to 50 km/h
