The State “will not validate” at the end of 2024 the limitation to 50 km/h on the Paris ring road desired by the Paris town hall after the Olympic Games, the Minister of Transport, Clément Beaune, announced on Thursday. “I think it is not a good idea in the short term to have this speed limit” and “at the end of 2024, we will not make the decision, we will not validate the decision” to limit the speed at 50 km/h, he explained on Franceinfo.
The Paris town hall explained at the end of November its desire to limit the speed on the ring road to 50 km/h after the 2024 summer Olympic Games, in addition to reserving one of the lanes for carpooling – a revolution supposed to protect the environment but which has since sparked lively political controversy. The ring road, one of the main urban axes in Europe, is used every day by 1.2 million vehicles, the majority from Ile-de-France, and 80% of which travel with their driver as the sole occupant.
This new speed limit aims to make traffic flow more smoothly on this very congested route, by encouraging residents of the Ile-de-France region to avoid “self-driving” and to use public transport. This measure mainly aims to reduce pollution and noise pollution, particularly at night for the 500,000 people who live in the immediate vicinity of this axis, often in working-class neighborhoods, according to the Paris town hall.
“I think the reserved lane is a good thing”
The maximum speed authorized on this 35-kilometer road belt which has surrounded the capital since 1973, had already increased from 90 km/h to 80 in 1993, then to 70 in 2014. Since 2021, the speed has also been limited to 30 km /h in most streets of the capital. If the ring road “is managed by the City of Paris”, a change in the speed limit “obviously requires validation from the State”, argued Clément Beaune, however saying he was “open” to the idea of a reserved lane.
“I think the reserved lane is a good thing,” he noted. But if, at the same time, the speed limit increases to 50 km/h, “I think you’re going to drive people crazy,” he continued.