Baptiste Morin // Photo credit: Bertrand GUAY / AFP 13:35 p.m., April 25, 2023

Surrounding Paris, the ring road is an institution of the all-car era, of the 60s and 70s. With more than a million trips made every day on its asphalt, the Parisian boulevard has become a commonplace. But how essential has it become to traffic around Paris? Europe 1 takes stock.

Decongest Paris. This was the goal of the ring road, which celebrates its 50th anniversary on Tuesday. The work was completed on 25 April 1973. Since then, this road has been part of the daily life not only of Parisians, but of all Ile-de-France residents. But how essential has the periphery become to traffic around Paris? Europe 1 takes stock.

>> Find Europe Matin in replay and podcast here

35 kilometers long, the periphery as it is nicknamed, goes all around Paris, and welcomes every day more than a million trips, five times more than in its first years. If it physically delimits the city of Paris, this urban highway is mainly used by the inhabitants of the inner suburbs. And one in two trips is between the capital and the nearby suburbs.

Low average speed

Reduction of the place of the car in the city obliges, the mayor of Paris reflects in recent months on evolutions. Among the ideas mentioned: a lane reserved for carpooling and electric vehicles and a lowering of the maximum speed limit. Initially set at 90 km/h, it is now 70 km/h and the idea of a limit of 50 km/h is evoked.

It must be said that this would not necessarily change much. Very congested, the average speed of motorists driving today on the Parisian boulevard is only ... 39 km/h.