Will it be possible to drive on the Paris ring road on Friday, July 26? In the best case scenario, traffic will be very difficult. Invited on RMC this Thursday morning, the Minister Delegate for Transport Patrice Vergriete indicated that the ring road will be partly “reserved for the circulation of athletes” and therefore “particularly disrupted” on the occasion of the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games, and that it could even be completely closed.
To facilitate the transport of athletes to the heart of Paris for the opening ceremony, as well as that of several dozen heads of state, “it is possible that at least part of the ring road will be reserved for that,” said Patrice Vergriete. “Imagine that the athletes’ buses that must be able to enter the ring road must cut off traffic… for security reasons, particularly because there are sensitive delegations, these buses must not remain at a standstill,” he explains, implying that at least a partial closure of the Paris ring road is inevitable.
“After 10 o’clock, we no longer guarantee anything”
“Guaranteeing the safety of the athletes’ transport while keeping traffic on the ring road in certain places seems complicated,” Patrice Vergriete acknowledged. “Will the entire ring road be closed or not? That’s the question that remains unanswered,” he said, recalling that the decision belongs to the police headquarters, and not to the Ministry of Transport, which will therefore make a decision during the day.
In any case, the Minister of Transport has given some instructions to motorists from the Paris region who might risk taking their car on Friday. “Our advice is not to drive after 10am. If you are going on holiday from the Île-de-France region, for example, leave before 10am. After 10am, there is no guarantee in terms of traffic,” advises Patrice Vergriete. The latter points out that the opening ceremony will bring together more than 320,000 people and therefore represents “the event of the century in terms of public demonstrations.”