The socialist mayor of Paris announced on RTL on Monday, September 9, that the long-planned speed reduction will come into effect in less than a month. A decision contested by the region.
No more going back. The mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, warned on Monday, September 9, on RTL that the Paris ring road would be reduced to 50 km/h. “on October 1st”, or in just a few weeks. “We have been working on it since 2018, it is not a new subject,” stressed the socialist, before adding: “We have votes on the subject at the Paris Council, very unanimously, since 2018.”
In disagreement with this announcement, the Ile-de-France region rushed to adopt, on Wednesday, a motion calling on the mayor of Paris to “give up” to his project, all “for the benefit of laying new soundproofing coatings”The region chaired by Valérie Pécresse (LR) considers these works more effective in reducing noise pollution, and says it is ready to finance half of them.
“On the ring road during the day, the average speed is 36 km/h. So it’s not the daytime workers that we’re going to inconvenience with this reduction in speed, it’s the night workers, the workers with staggered hours, the most modest workers, those who have no choice and who have to take the car.”also pleaded Valérie Pécresse on Wednesday before the elected representatives of the region, gathered to vote on the regional planning strategy until 2040. The Ile-de-France region, which wishes “to have the management competence of the device transferred to them”emphasizing that it is “used daily by more than 1 million vehicles, with 40% of journeys made from suburb to suburb and 80% of non-Parisian users”condemned a decision “one-sided, anti-social and ineffective” of the mayor of Paris.
Tensions
The Paris city hall had already announced at the end of November its intention to limit the speed on the ring road to 50 km/h after the Olympic and Paralympic Games, which ended on Sunday. A measure justified on its website: “Less environmental and noise pollution, and more safety for users, all good reasons to slow down! Today, the average speed on the ring road is 50 km/h during the day, 30 to 45 km/h during rush hour and 60 km/h at night.”
The Minister of Transport in office at the time of the announcement, Clément Beaune, had then affirmed that the State “No [validerait] not” this measure while the Minister of Energy Transition at the time, Agnès Pannier-Runacher, had denounced a measure “antisocial” and likely, according to her, to generate more traffic jams and therefore CO2 emissions. But the ecologist deputy for roads in the capital, David Belliard, had not given up, defending “a measure of common good which has a collective interest”.
Tensions also rose with the Paris police prefect, Laurent Nuñez, who had expressed reservations about this decision. And hammered home: “It won’t happen without me, because the ring road is one of the roads on which I can impose a certain number of prescriptions.” The mayor of Paris has the authority to decide on this change of speed on the ring road surrounding the capital, as David Belliard reminded us on France Bleu on Monday morning: “On the question of maximum speed, the decision belongs to Paris and the mayor of Paris. It is she who, by municipal decree, can decide to reduce the speed.”
But it is nevertheless the State, therefore the Paris police prefect, who manages the speed cameras. Enough to make this reduction to 50 km/h ineffective. Questioned about these disagreements on France Bleu, David Belliard nevertheless assures that “Of course, we prefer to do it with the police prefect, and I have no doubt that we will manage to find ways to reach a common agreement.”
Speed reduced to 70 km/h in 2014
In November 2023, the Paris city hall announced the implementation of this speed reduction on the ring road for September 2024. A «carpool lane and public transport on the ring road, legacies of the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games”, supposed to be perpetuated after the competitions. However, we do not know where this measure stands, which was not mentioned by Anne Hidalgo this Monday morning.
In 2014, the speed limit had already been reduced by 10 km/h, from 80 km/h to 70 km/h on the 35 km ring road that encircles the capital. Since then, the approximately 550,000 residents living along the urban motorway have experienced a “reduction of noise pollution, particularly at night: a little more than one decibel less at night, and 0.5 decibels during the day”, David Belliard had argued in January.
“If the environmental gain of a change from 130 to 110 km/h is demonstrated, that of 90 to 70 is already very questionable both in terms of NO2 pollution and noise,” had retorted five right-wing Parisian elected officials in a column, in a debate which is animating the capital’s politicians.
Update : September 12 at 11:25 a.m., with statements by Valérie Pécresse.
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