It was one of Anne Hidalgo's campaign promises: the mayor of Paris is going to lower the speed limit on the Paris ring road from 70 km/h to 50 km/h. The millions of motorists who use the Paris ring road every day will therefore be forced to slow down by next year, in September, after the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. Quite a change for users of the périph', who will already have to adapt to the lane reserved for athletes during the competition, then to carpooling and buses.
According to traffic specialists, a ring road limited to 50 km/h would not only reduce pollution and noise pollution, it 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 to 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. But the government doesn't seem to agree with this limitation, which could well be shelved. Answer at the end of 2024!
