Lowering the maximum speed to 50 km/h on the ring road has already had a positive impact, according to a weekly bulletin from Paris town hall.
Noise volume is decreasing, as is pollution.
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Paris town hall welcomes the lowering of the maximum speed to 50 km/h on the ring road. Coming into force on October 1, the measure would be beneficial: it has already had a positive impact on noise, air pollution and accidents, according to a weekly monitoring bulletin published Friday by the authorities.
The data is based on measurements by the Airparif and Bruitparif associations taken between September 30 and October 4 at Porte de Vincennes. This area in the south-east of Paris is located in the section of the ring road where the reduction in speed (from 70 to 50 km/h) was effective from October 1, before being generalized to the entire city. ring on October 10.
“Sound divided by two”
Bruitparif recorded a drop of -2.6 decibels at night, compared to the same week of the previous year. “According to the decibel scale, this amounts to dividing the sound by two“, explained Catherine Gourlay-Francé, head of the environmental quality division at the City of Paris. A significant gain, she argues, for the 550,000 residents of the ring road, some of whom are exposed beyond the values regulatory, set at 68 decibels.
The concentration of nitrogen dioxide, at 39 µg/m3, is in the same range as the average observed in 2023. The level of fine particles, at 15 µg/m3, is however lower than the values observed in 2023. last year (around 25 µg/m), noted the expert, nevertheless emphasizing that weather conditions could influence the data. On the traffic side, the ring road sensors recorded a 38% drop in traffic jams, indicated Jean-François Mangin, head of the “Major Projects” mission within the City secretariat. Accidents and incidents have fallen by 68%.
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The Paris town hall, which took this controversial measure, “shows transparency in a debate where we say everything and its opposite“, estimated David Belliard, environmentalist deputy at the town hall in charge of transport, during a press conference. “This bulletin will be published every Friday. It does not replace a substantive evaluation“, specified Patrick Bloche, the first deputy.
