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Ring road in Paris, France From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Boulevard Périphérique (French pronunciation: [bulvaʁ peʁifeʁik]), often called the Périph, is a limited-access dual-carriageway ring road in Paris, France. With a few exceptions (see Structure and Layout), it is situated along Paris's administrative limit.
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Boulevard Périphérique | |
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![]() A map showing the three main ring roads of Paris: Boulevard Périphérique (orange), Autoroute 86 (purple), and the Francilienne (indigo and turquoise) | |
![]() The Boulevard Périphérique Extérieur near Porte d'Aubervilliers | |
Route information | |
Length | 35.04 km (21.77 mi) |
Existed | 1958–present |
Location | |
Country | France |
Highway system | |
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The speed limit along the Périphérique is 70 km/h (43.5 mph). Each ring generally has four traffic lanes, with no hard shoulder. Its major interchanges are called portes. At junctions, vehicles in the rightmost lane (separated from other lanes in these areas by a continuous white line to the left) must yield to entering vehicles.
When travelling at the legal speed limit, it takes approximately 30 minutes to complete a full circuit of the Périphérique.
In 1846, the French War Ministry completed the defensive Thiers wall around Paris, including fortifications, a dry moat, a Rue Militaire and a large berm. In 1859, the military engineering department gave conditional control of the perimeter to the precursor of the current Paris city council.[1] The expansion of Paris in 1860, achieved through annexation of bordering communities, created a situation where everything within the Thiers wall was Paris and everything outside was not. The Thiers wall led to a profound disruption of the synergistic relationship between Paris and its suburbs.
In 1861, the Paris city council started converting some sections of the Rue Militaire into boulevards. In the 1920s, the complete dismantling of the Thiers wall allowed further construction of what is today a series of over 20 connected boulevards encircling the city. This inner quasi-ring road came to be known as the Boulevards of the Marshals, as most of the boulevards bear the name of a marshal who served under Napoleon I. The road construction largely helped to reconnect Paris with its burgeoning suburbs. The Boulevards of the Marshals were almost fully completed by 1932, though the final three sections would not be added until 2005, closing the ring over 80 years after construction began. The Boulevards of the Marshals were built just inside the city limits, leaving a ring of vacant land just outside their perimeter.
Construction of the Périphérique began in 1958 on the remaining area once occupied by the Thiers Wall; the space not already taken up by the Boulevards of the Marshals measured anywhere from a few meters to the width of a city block. Unlike the Boulevards of the Marshals, the road bears only a single name, Boulevard Périphérique. In order to alleviate traffic congestion, the Périphérique was built more like a motorway than a wide boulevard, and was completed on 25 April 1973 under the presidency of Georges Pompidou.[2] Used in a quarter of all Parisian traffic movements, it quickly became the busiest road in France. The Périphérique became a victim of its own success, plagued by widespread congestion and blocked from expansion by dense surrounding urban areas.
The Périphérique consists of two concentric carriageways: the intérieur ("inner ring") and the extérieur ("outer ring"). Vehicles travel clockwise on the inner ring and counterclockwise on the outer ring. Stretches of the road are sometimes referred to by cardinal direction. For example, in the southern half of the highway, the "inner ring" is designated as the Périphérique Ouest ("Western Ring"), as traffic there flows westbound, whereas the "outer ring" is designated as the Périphérique Est ("Eastern Ring"), as traffic flows eastbound. In the northern half, these designations are reversed.
The structure of the Boulevard Périphérique is similar to most French autoroutes, UK and Commonwealth nation motorways, and American freeways in the following ways:
But the Périphérique is also different from some of its domestic and foreign counterparts:
There are generally four lanes in each of the two rings of the Boulevard. Variations exist:
The entire Boulevard Périphérique is 35.04 kilometres long, as measured along the central median strip. The route closely follows the municipal boundaries of Paris, but diverges in the Bois de Boulogne and Bois de Vincennes (where the roadway is cut and covered), and the Paris Heliport. Because the Boulevard was built over the old Thiers Wall, its entrance/exit ramps and interchanges coincide with locations of the wall's former city gates, or portes. The road crosses the River Seine via bridges upstream at Charenton/Bercy and downstream at Saint-Cloud/Issy.
Small distance markers are distributed evenly alongside the roadway:
The roadway varies in elevation:
The Boulevard Périphérique can carry the heaviest vehicles allowed by French regulations. There is a height restriction of 4.75 metres (15 feet, 8 inches).
The Boulevard Périphérique is equipped with speed cameras to enforce the 70 km/h (43.5 mph) speed limit. The cameras are oriented to photograph vehicle plates from behind, and are reportedly located near the following interchanges:[3]
On the inner ring, at:
On the outer ring, at:
In addition, the Périphérique's exit ramps are often monitored with hand-held binocular-type radar devices; these are triggered when the 50 km/h (31 mph) exiting limit is exceeded.
Finally, during rush hour, radar-equipped police vehicles are often positioned in hidden areas for further spot checks.
Approximately one hundred traffic cameras are installed along the Périphérique, directly connected to the control room of its traffic management office. There are 166 emergency telephones, located every 500 metres along the ring road (every 250 metres underground), which handle 7,000 calls per year. The emergency phones are all numbered, with odd-numbered phones on the outer ring and even-numbered ones on the inner ring road.
Eight police vehicles continuously patrol the Périphérique during the day; four do so at night.
750 sensors embedded in the road surface record each passing vehicle, measuring flow rate, occupancy rate and/or traffic velocity on given portions of the Périphérique. Variable-message signs provide information on the estimated journey time to the next major exit, automatically generating updates every minute via a computer system using data from the sensors. The system also displays general information on accidents, road closures and road work.
The Boulevard Périphérique is not the only means of bypassing the interior of the French capital:
![]() | This article contains a bulleted list or table of intersections which should be presented in a properly formatted junction table. (December 2021) |
Junction number | Junction name | Outer lanes exits | Inner lanes exits |
1 | Porte de Bercy | A4 | Quai de Bercy |
2 | Porte d'Ivry | None | Avenue d'Ivry |
3 | Porte d'Italie | A6B | Avenue d'Italie |
4 | Porte de Gentilly | A6A | Rue de l'Amiral Mouchez |
5 | Porte d'Orléans | Avenue Aristide Briand | Avenue du Maine |
6 | Porte de Châtillon | Avenue Pierre Brossollette | Avenue Jean Moulin |
7 | Porte de Vanves | Rue Ernest Renan | Boulevard Brune |
8 | Porte Brancion | Rue Jean Bleuzen | Avenue de la Porte-Brancion |
9 | Porte de la Plaine | Rue Camliant | Place des Insurges de Varsovie |
10 | Porte de Sèvres | None | Rue Balard |
11 | Porte de Saint-Cloud | Route de la Reine | Avenue de Versailles |
12 | Porte Molitor | Boulevard d'Auteuil | Rue Poussin |
13 | Porte d'Auteuil | A13 | Rue Poussin |
14 | Porte de Passy | Rue de l'Hippodrome | Rue de Ranelagh |
15 | Porte de la Muette | None | Avenue H. Martin |
16 | Porte Dauphine | Route de Suresnes | Avenue Foch |
17 | Porte Maillot | Avenue Charles De Gaulle | Avenue de la Grande Armée |
18 | Porte de Champerret | Boulevard Bineau | Avenue de Villiers |
19 | Porte d'Asnières | Rue Victor Hugo | Rue de Tocqueville |
20 | Porte de Clichy | Boulevard Jean Jaurès | Avenue de Clichy |
21 | Porte de Saint-Ouen | Avenue Gabriel Péri | Avenue de Saint-Ouen |
22 | Porte de Clignancourt | Avenue Michelet | Boulevard Ornano |
23 | Porte de la Chapelle | A1 | Rue de la Chapelle |
24 | Porte d'Aubervilliers | Avenue Victor Hugo | Rue d'Aubervilliers |
25 | Porte de la Villette | Avenue Jean Jaurès | Avenue de Flandre |
26 | Porte de Pantin | Avenue Jean Lolive | Avenue Jean Jaurès |
27 | Porte du Pré-Saint-Gervais | Rue Gabriel Péri | Rue Haxo |
28 | Porte des Lilas | Rue de Paris | Rue de Belleville |
29 | Porte de Bagnolet | A3 | Rue Belgrand |
30 | Porte de Montreuil | Rue de Paris | Rue d'Avron |
31 | Porte de Vincennes | Avenue de Paris | Cours de Vincennes |
32 | Porte de Saint-Mandé | Avenue Victor Hugo | Avenue de Saint-Mandé |
33 | Porte Dorée | Route de ceinture du Lac-Daumesnil | Avenue Daumesnil |
34 | Porte de Charenton | Avenue de Gravelle | Rue de Charenton |
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