50 km/h speed limit on Paris Ring Road to follow after Olympic Games

There will also be a carpool lane on the road in order to minimize traffic congestion

The Paris City Council announced that the planned speed reduction on the Ring Road (Boulevard Périphérique), from the current 70 km/h to 50 km/h, will be introduced right after the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games. Moreover, there will also be a carpooling and public transport lane.

We will use the legacy of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games to perpetuate this reserved lane. Without them, it would undoubtedly have taken fifteen years of cultural battle to achieve it,” explains Emmanuel Grégoire, deputy mayor of the French capital, as quoted by 20Minutes.

The authorities are using the momentous and rare occasion of hosting an event of global importance in order to introduce or speed up some changes in the urban landscape that Parisians have gotten used to.

The new Paris climate plan

Although it’s marketed as a legacy of the still-to-happen Olympics, the speed reduction and carpooling lane are important steps of the new 2026-2030 Paris Climate Plan, which seeks to make the French capital a cleaner, more resilient and more comfortable place to live.

The benefits of slowing down and having fewer cars on the road (the effect of carpooling) are obvious, as they will improve air quality and reduce noise pollution and fuel consumption.

The carpooling lane will be activated at peak times – from 7 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. and from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m., weekdays only, Monday to Friday. Only vehicles carrying at least two people on board, public transport vehicles, emergency service vehicles and taxis will be able to use it.

Continuous evaluation will be carried out during the first five years of the implementation of the route.

As for the speed reduction, it aims to effectively transform the Ring Road from a motorway to an urban boulevard – as its French name suggests it is.

This will not be the first speed reduction to take place on it. The Peripherique, unveiled in 1973, has already seen reductions in its speed limit - from 90 km/h to 80 in 1993, and then to 70 in 2014.