Positive report on reduced speed limit on Paris ring road

Just one year after the introduction of the reduction of the speed limit from 80 km/h to 70 km/h on the Paris ring road, reports from the City Hall paint a positive picture of the results of this controversial measure. Accidents on the ring road are said to have reduced by 15.5 per cent, from 742 in 2013 to 627 in 2014, while the number of injuries has reduced from 908 in 2013 to 776 in 2014. Ironically, the reduced speed limit has resulted in an increase in the morning average speed from 32.6 km/h in
January 19, 2015 Read time: 2 mins
Just one year after the introduction of the reduction of the speed limit from 80 km/h to 70 km/h on the Paris ring road, reports from the City Hall paint a positive picture of the results of this controversial measure.

Accidents on the ring road are said to have reduced by 15.5 per cent, from 742 in 2013 to 627 in 2014, while the number of injuries has reduced from 908 in 2013 to 776 in 2014.

Ironically, the reduced speed limit has resulted in an increase in the morning average speed from 32.6 km/h in 2013 to 38.4 km/h in 2014, while the average speed in the evening has increased from 30.3 km/h in 2013 to 33.9 km/h in 2014. These results are explained by ‘reducing the accordion effect’ and have increased journey time savings by 15 per cent in the morning and five per cent in the evening.

The decrease in the speed limit also reduced noise by 1.2 dBA at night and by 0.5 dBA during the day, which corresponds to decreases in traffic of 25 per cent and 10 per cent.

According to Christophe Najdovski of Europe Ecologie Les Vert, the results should open the debate on testing a speed limit of 50km/h on the ring road.

Related Content

  • Auckland considers road user charging to plug funding shortfall
    October 29, 2014
    Auckland, New Zealand, faces a US$9.5 billion transport funding gap to build the fully-integrated transport network set out in the 30-year Auckland Plan that includes new roads, rail, ferries, busways, cycle-ways and supporting infrastructure needed to cope with a population set to hit 2.5 million in the next three decades. If Auckland opts to pay for the fully-integrated Auckland Plan, Auckland Council officials claim the transport network congestion is expected to improve by 20 per cent over the next 1
    Read More
  • US ITS sector needs strategic leadership
    January 31, 2012
    The US is losing its advantage in the ITS sector because of a lack of strategic leadership, according to a new report from the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation. Here, Stephen Ezell, one of the report's authors, talks to ITS International about what can be done to remedy the situation. A new report from the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF), Explaining International IT Leadership: Intelligent Transportation Systems, makes for sobering reading within the US ITS community.
    Read More
  • Green requirements of traffic video systems
    February 2, 2012
    Traficon's Head of Product and Application Management Robin Collaert offers up a discussion of the likely future green requirements of traffic video systems. At the most basic levels, ITS has the potential to significantly reduce the amounts of time which vehicles spend waiting at intersections, and less time spent waiting means less in the way of vehicular emissions. All of that will hardly come as news to most laypeople, let alone transport professionals. However, the reality is that even today too many r
    Read More
  • RAC research – ‘speed cameras cut accidents by a quarter’
    June 7, 2013
    New research by the UK’s RAC Foundation indicates that speed cameras reduce the number of fatal and serious collisions in areas where they are installed. Analysis of data for 551 fixed speed cameras in nine areas shows that on average the number of fatal and serious collisions in their vicinity fell by more than a quarter (twenty-seven per cent) after their installation. There was also an average reduction of fifteen per cent in personal injury collisions in the vicinity of the 551 cameras.
    Read More

Highlighted Content