[F] A4/A86 Diverging Diamond Replaced

[Bryn666]

One of the world's first DDIs in Paris has now been replaced with a loop arrangement.

The congestion at this location made even the DDI struggle so a freeflow turn will help lots - a pity a much more elegant freeflow arrangement wasn't possible but this will have to do for now.

Paris is making it easier to use the ring roads so traffic is kept out of the city centre.

[Owain]

Paris is making it easier to use the ring roads so traffic is kept out of the city centre.

It's always struck me as odd that the A104 has never been completed to form a full ring, or given a more important sounding number.

The terrain around the Seine looks a bit awkward to the west of the city (between A13 and A15), but surely a ring further out that linked all of the arteries (running clockwise) from the A15 to the A12/A13 wouldn't be a bad idea?

[Bryn666]

Paris is making it easier to use the ring roads so traffic is kept out of the city centre.

It's always struck me as odd that the A104 has never been completed to form a full ring, or given a more important sounding number.

The terrain around the Seine looks a bit awkward to the west of the city (between A13 and A15), but surely a ring further out that linked all of the arteries (running clockwise) from the A15 to the A12/A13 wouldn't be a bad idea?

I have long dreamt of an outer ring road for Paris. I call it the A90 (bit of a nod to the GRA there).

This is the nation that bridged the Tarn Valley. West of Paris is easy to solve geotechnically but perhaps less so politically.

[Owain]

I have long dreamt of an outer ring road for Paris. I call it the A90 (bit of a nod to the GRA there).

I'd call it A90 too (no surprises where the inspiration came from)!

The A86 might make more sense as A95, and the other 'little' Paris autoroutes could take A9x numbers. I'm not sure why they went for the 86 number; it seems a bit 'out of zone', and the A8x routes seem to cover most of western France which make that zone disproportionately huge.

I've wondered if the A9x numbers are provisionally reserved for Corsica ... although that seems a bit pointless, considering that they are unlikely to build any autoroutes on the island.

[Bryn666]

A86 is a hangover from the pre-1982 numbering system that frankly made little sense and used letter prefixes for spur routes (e.g. the A6b was B6, and the A115 was F15).

The original A87 was to be in Paris as well, but very little of that exists - the dogleg in the A10 and the unbuilt roads around it being the most obvious evidence.

The current cluster system is better but I agree that 9x numbers for the Ile de France would be good.

That said there were 9xx motorway numbers once - the A139 at Rouen was originally A932 so it seems 9x may have been for the north west at one point.

[A303Chris]

Paris is making it easier to use the ring roads so traffic is kept out of the city centre.

It's always struck me as odd that the A104 has never been completed to form a full ring, or given a more important sounding number.

The terrain around the Seine looks a bit awkward to the west of the city (between A13 and A15), but surely a ring further out that linked all of the arteries (running clockwise) from the A15 to the A12/A13 wouldn't be a bad idea?

Good point but it is only the A104 between the A1 and A4, all the other bits are the N104 and don't have autoroute status. Still can't believe that sat navs still want to use the periphique instead of this when going from the A16/A1 to say the A6 and A10.

[ScottB5411]

The D36 runs on the line reserved for the A87 to Saclay, easy to tell by the spare room and some of its junctions where clearly something larger was planned. There is other evidence in Trappes where a junction before the river was clearly designed with something else in mind and plenty of room for another carriageway and only new build on the line the A87 was to take. Sadly, no hope of this exists now (although the same was said of the A86 20 years ago!)

Sat Navs take you via the peripherique as it is the fastest route, if traffic conditions are perfect..... which they rarely are

[Bryn666]

The D36 runs on the line reserved for the A87 to Saclay, easy to tell by the spare room and some of its junctions where clearly something larger was planned. There is other evidence in Trappes where a junction before the river was clearly designed with something else in mind and plenty of room for another carriageway and only new build on the line the A87 was to take. Sadly, no hope of this exists now (although the same was said of the A86 20 years ago!)

Sat Navs take you via the peripherique as it is the fastest route, if traffic conditions are perfect..... which they rarely are

The A86 and A104/N104 are really long ways around, but like you say, the traffic flows on the BP are wildly unpredictable. Still as long as it isn't Black Saturday you'll be relatively okay...

I suggested on Twitter that Paris still has more unbuilt roads than London's Ringways. The Paris plans were insane.

[ScottB5411]

They were insane, it's also nuts how many clues there are on the ground though as to what should have been