Too fast, too furious: Paris speed limit crashes into right-wing opposition

PARIS — France’s new transport minister hadn’t even been on the job for a week when he sat down with Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo in a last-ditch effort to get her to reconsider a controversial policy: slowing the speed limit on the capital’s main ring road.
The move, which would reduce the limit to a sluggish 50 kilometers per hour, is grounded in an effort to improve air quality in the heavily polluted French capital and reduce noise pollution around the highway, where lower-income families tend to live.
But it forces drivers into respecting a maximum speed well below that applied to drivers on similar ring roads in other major European cities.

Slowing the Périph’, as it’s known to Parisians, is part of a broader push from the center-left Hidalgo to get cars out of the city — an agenda which has made her a divisive figure in French politics, either praised for her efforts to make Paris a greener city or loathed as an elitist disconnected from the needs of those who need their cars to make ends meet.
Transport Minister François Durovray’s effort to get her to back down appears to have failed.
Even after publicly criticizing the move and forcing a meeting with Hidalgo, the speed limit will be progressively rolled out across the Boulevard Périphérique from Tuesday until Oct. 10.
“The Minister regrets this decision, which will affect millions of people in the Paris region … He hopes that future public policies relating to the ring road, which is used by the people of Île-de-France and not just Parisians, will take a more collaborative and balanced approach,” Durovray said in a statement after the meeting.
Durovray, however, was not alone in his criticism.
Hidalgo’s usual adversaries had already weighed in to voice their displeasure when the proposal was first floated. Valérie Pécresse, the conservative president of Paris’ Île-de-France region, called the slowdown a “denial of democracy.” Culture Minister Rachida Dati, who plans to challenge Hidalgo in the next mayoral election in 2026, said the decision wasn’t based on sound science.
The two transportation ministers who preceded Durovray also opposed the proposal. Durovray, however, is from the conservative Les Républicains and is part of the most right-leaning government France has had in a decade.
Hidalgo appears to have won this round. But she’s now facing off against a right-leaning national government for the first time — meaning her green agenda risks facing the stiffest opposition since she became mayor in 2014.

Car and speed policies have always been hot-button issues in France.
A similar 10 kph speed reduction on county roads in 2018, introduced by then-Prime Minister Édouard Philippe, triggered a nationwide backlash.
Much of the controversy surrounding the Périph’ stems from the fact that it is not exclusively used by Parisians: a 2021 study commissioned by the city of Paris showed that most drivers who use it live outside the French capital’s limits.
These are people who live in far-flung suburbs and commute to Paris on a daily basis, the same types of citizens who felt ignored by the proposed hike in fuel taxes that set off the Yellow Jacket protests early in French President Emmanuel Macron’s tenure.
Hidalgo hasn’t been afraid to anger them, as she’s made her anti-car crusade a key part of her mayoral agenda. Before slowing down the Périph’, Hidalgo spearheaded a referendum earlier this year which hiked parking fees for heavy vehicles such as SUVs; closed the banks of the River Seine to traffic and limited access to the central Rue de Rivoli — which passes both city hall and the iconic Louvre — to authorized vehicles; and put in place a maximum speed limit of 30 kph on most roads in the city.
Some of those have proven popular with Parisians, especially closing the banks of the Seine — where roads that were once filled with cars are now popular spots for families, joggers, tourists and the odd flâneur.
“All of Hidalgo’s moves, like closing the roads which ran along the Seine banks, led to outrage, but the fact is, if any of her opponents were to take office, they wouldn’t go back on them,” a former French lawmaker said. The individual, who was granted anonymity to share their unvarnished perspective on a high-profile politician without repercussions, described some of these green initiatives as “policies of our time.”
But Hidalgo’s vision for a car-free Paris has clearly taken a toll on her popularity nationwide. When she ran for president in 2022, she received only 1.7 percent of the vote — the worst-ever performance for a Socialist Party candidate.
She is, the French lawmaker said, “one of the French personalities who provokes the strongest reactions.”