Skip to main content

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

  • Figures show Express Lanes bring wider benefits
    August 12, 2015
    Drivers in the Washington DC area are realising time savings following the opening of Express Lanes on the I-95 - and not only those paying to use the new facility. Washington is ranked as being the worst gridlocked city in the United States. Every day its drivers face an average commute time of 39.5 minutes and they waste an average of 67 hours every year just sitting in traffic. In a move to counter these problems, late last December new Express Lanes were opened along 46.6km (29 miles) of the I-95 betwee
  • Brake, IAM concerned at government figures on UK drink-drive habit
    August 7, 2015
    Brake, the road safety charity, and the Institute of Advanced Motorists (IAM), have responded to the latest government figures which they say show Britain is still failing to adequately tackle its drink drive problem. A final estimate shows 240 people were killed by drivers over the legal drink drive limit in 2013, while provisional estimates suggest at least that number were killed in 2014. However, the number of people seriously injured in drink drive crashes did fall by eight per cent to 1,100 from 20
  • Moveble barriers improve workzone safety, reduce costs
    January 25, 2012
    Two phases of an arterial reconstruction project in Salt Lake City have provided a compelling cost-based argument for moveable barriers.
  • Carrots are proving cost-effective in Netherlands
    October 3, 2018
    There are lessons to be learned from congestion avoidance schemes in the Netherlands. David Crawford welcomes some new thinking in road pricing. Highway operators worldwide are being urged to learn from Dutch experience in using financial carrots rather than sticks to encourage drivers to avoid contributing to congestion. A Netherlands/UK group makes a convincing cost/benefit case in a new global survey of road pricing technologies, economics and acceptability. Representing the Rijkswaterstaat section of