Talk:Boulevard Périphérique

Radars

There were speed radars there before 2002! olivier 10:53, Mar 12, 2005 (UTC)

"French people most often refer to the Paris Périphérique as "le Périph" (/perif/). France's anglophone community occasionally refers to it as the "Périfreak", attesting to the many accidents and thick traffic formerly associated with it. Permanent automatic speed radars have been set up on the Périphérique since 2002, and cases of excess speed driving as well as mortality have considerably decreased in the space of two years. Visitors who have not driven in Paris since 2002 are often surprised at the new driving behaviors on the Périphérique when they return to Paris."

Sounds POV. David.Monniaux 08:39, 25 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Busiest road in Europe

Further to statement on the M25 talk page, can we be sure exactly what the 1.2 million vehicles per day refers to? Is it:

1. The total number of vehicles using a part of the road per day (or average per day taken over a longer period of days)
2. The total number of vehicles passing by a particular point on the busiest stretch per day (or average as above).

If it's the latter, then that equates to an average of nearly 2 cars per second per lane, 24 hours per day, probably much higher actual number at peak times. That's an awful lot, and difficult to believe that people actually drive like that. An average speed of 26mph reported in the article, would give a separation between cars of around 2-3 metres (8 feet) - somewhere in the region of half a car length. Less than 16mph, and cars must be pretty much in contact with each other to achieve that amount of flow.

Is the 1.2 million then measured by the 1st statement?

The M25's traffic figures are measured by the 2nd statement, usually giving a peak of around 250,000 vehicles per day on the section near Heathrow Airport. The overall number using part of the M25 will be much higher than that, because most people will be unwilling to use the entire M25 in one go, but instead will use only a part of it to connect to other roads - probably higher than 1.2 million per day - but it's difficult to find official figures to that effect.

Can we investigate this further before we make assumptions on which is the busier route? Richard B 11:22, 2 January 2006 (UTC)

measuring the traffic on a road by taking the whole road in account, is very unusually, and it gives not a good comparison. Usually the AADT is taken from one exit to the first exit that follows, and not of the whole ringroad. The M25 has 196.000 vehicles a day near Heathrow airport. The busiest French road is the A4 just east of the Périphérique with 257.000 vehicles a day, see also[1] I suggest the figure in this article should be changed to a real AADT figure. Chriszwolle 19:33, 8 August 2007 (UTC)

Well by definition a ring road can be used in many ways, entered anywhere and exited anywhere, so why would you not measure all the traffic and limit yourself to a small portion of it ? Aesma (talk) 17:28, 20 April 2014 (UTC)

Black Prince

Someone inserted some time ago this text: "The notorious "Black Prince" achieved infamy through his illegal racing on the Paris Peripherique, the city’s 35 km (21 mile) ring-road. Averaging 190+ km/h (120+ mph) on his Kawasaki ZXR750 (more than twice the speed limit) with a camera strapped to the tank, the Frenchman’s stunt achieved a cult status in the biking world. Bootleg copies of his illegal ride have only ever been available before now. This is his death defying ride through morning traffic with barely room to spare - it will make even the hardest biker flinch."
It was deleted because it is too similar to a copyrighted text (http://www.grandprixlegends.com/BookVideoSite/pages/product/product.asp?prod=DM1589(GPL_BaseCatalog)&cookie%5Ftest=1), the info at the rear side of a video cassette.
However, I think this is an interesting detail. I'm no native speaker, is there anyone here who is able to write a better text so we can inculde this info again?

Exit numbers

Are the exit numbers signed? --SPUI (T - C) 01:53, 29 June 2006 (UTC)

I lived in Paris until 2001 and at that time the exits were not numbered - just identified by the "Porte de ..." However, the situation might have changed since then. Astronaut 19:54, 4 April 2007 (UTC)

I can't find any evidence of their signage on Google Street View. Unless they are used internally, they should be removed. --NE2 07:15, 7 December 2009 (UTC)

Name capitalisation

Is it appropriate for the name (more specifically, the word 'Périphérique') to be in capitals? 'Périphérique' is not a proper noun, but merely an adjective. IMHO, the article and redirect namespaces are the wrong way around. Ohconfucius (talk) 03:36, 10 July 2008 (UTC)

In High Street, high isn't a proper noun, but when it becomes part of a name it's capitalized. --NE2 07:17, 7 December 2009 (UTC)

Dubious

I find the statement "fatalities in the Périphérique are rare (none in 2005 as compared to 10 to 15 per year in the 1990s), compared to its large traffic count (50% of Paris traffic)" slightly strange, especially with no citation.

However, what follows - "A plausible reason for this is that due to its congestion the traffic moves relatively slowly, and therefore accidents are usually lesser-impact" seems completely wrong to me.

The traffic moves slowly relative to what, exactly? What qualifies as slow? For that matter, accidents are lesser-impact than what? I would be extremely surprised if travelling round the Périphérique is slower than making the equivalent journey in a straight(ish) line across the centre of Paris, and if this is the case it needs to be sourced. I was very tempted to just remove this second sentence entirely, but I hope its author may explain... --Peeky44 _{What's on your mind?} 00:51, 4 January 2011 (UTC)

I checked this (http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accidentologie_sur_le_boulevard_p%C3%A9riph%C3%A9rique_de_Paris) and it turns out to be true generally, however 2005 actually saw the worst numbers in recent years with 14 dead, compared to 1 to 3 per year since then.

I don't think the statement was comparing the périph' to inner Paris' circulation, where there are actually more deaths even though traffic is even slower, because you have intersections, walking people, bikes, etc, but rather comparing a dual carriageway to other motorways, even though technically the périph' is a city street. In that sense the périph' being overcrowded most of the day means accidents are less severe than on other motorways. Aesma (talk) 17:35, 20 April 2014 (UTC)

The inner-inner Périphérique

There is a set of continuous regular boulevards that follow the same route but typically ~250 m inside the Boulevard Périphérique. Clockwise from the 'start' at Porte de Bercy, these are the Boulevards: Massena, Kellermann, Jourdan, Brune, Lefebvre, Victor, Exelmans, Suchet, Lannes, Berthier, Bessieres, Ney, Macdonald, Serurier, Indochine, Algerie, Mortier, Davout, Soult, Poniatowski. Is it worth mentioning this interesting and often quieter drive in this article? Astronaut (talk) 15:47, 30 June 2011 (UTC)

crossings/ pedestrians?

(How/ where) can pedestrians (and maybe animals like foxes etc.) cross it?