Traffic rules are going to be changed on many major roads and it will be better to respect them from this Monday, July 15 to avoid receiving a big fine.
Millions of motorists will have to change their driving habits starting next Monday, July 15. A major event planned for this summer in France will indeed impose new regulations on the road. If you don’t know yet, the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games, organized largely in and around Paris, have prompted the authorities to make traffic changes on many major roads. In addition to the closure of certain areas in the capital since May (Place de la Concorde, Pont Alexandre-III, Avenue Galliéni), several sections of highways as well as the ring road and the circular boulevard at La Défense will be impacted by the global sporting event.
In total, no less than 185 kilometres of roads around Paris will be reserved exclusively for vehicle traffic from Monday to transport athletes, official delegations and journalists as well as taxis, emergency vehicles, ambulances and public transport. On these major roads, the left lane will therefore be closed to all ordinary motorists. If you often drive on the A1, A4, A12 or A13 motorways, or on the Paris ring road, from Porte de Vanves to Porte de Bercy in both directions via the north, you have probably recently noticed new road signs – using signs or road markings – to indicate that you are driving on future Olympic roads.
These signaling elements will be visible from 1er July to September 15, 2024. To be understood by all, they include either the Olympic logo or the words “Paris 2024”. And so it is from July 15 that the ban on the general public using these lanes will be effective. If you think you can slip incognito into the left lane to save time, be aware that many radars have been installed to carry out checks. All the license plates of vehicles authorized to drive on the Olympic lanes have been recorded in a file. If this is not the case, the risk of being caught by the patrol will be high if you try to get around the rule.
And the bill will be particularly steep. Any driver driving on an Olympic lane without permission will be fined 135 euros and liable to prosecution. For all those hoping for a return to normal for the start of the school year, they may well be disappointed at the end of the summer. Indeed, the Olympic lanes will give way to carpooling lanes once the Olympics are over. It will then be forbidden to drive in the left lane of many major roads while alone in your car. The new radars, capable of checking the number of passengers in each vehicle, will not let anything through.