Large-scale events, such as the Olympics, create huge anticipation and excitement, but also significant and hard-to-predict parking and travel disruption. This dramatically increases congestion in a short time span across a large area, while introducing localised parking restrictions and shutting off several zones to motorised traffic completely. Parkopedia is striving to improve the parking process for drivers attending the summer Olympics by ensuring in-car parking data takes updated road and parking closures into account along with the addition of new temporary parking zones.
Any event that drives large numbers of visitors to a small area can overwhelm local facilities, whether it’s a Taylor Swift concert increasing Welsh motorway traffic by 15% across the country or football matches at the recent UEFA Euros. However, these events are short-term ‘one-offs’ that can have a temporary local impact, but they usually don’t lead to significant long-term changes to traffic and parking conditions.
The Paris 2024 Olympic Games are of a different kind. They are about as big as an international event gets, with around 10,500 athletes set to take part and an average of 40,000 security staff as well as millions of spectators expected to attend the exceptional event over a period of almost 3 weeks. As a result, though France is used to high visitor numbers, the Olympics will have a very noticeable impact on travel for Paris and the surrounding areas.
Key Information
The Olympics opening ceremony will take place on July 26 with athletes from 206 delegations attending, along with hundreds of thousands of spectators, with millions more set to attend over the eight weeks of the ensuing Olympic and Paralympic events. The Olympics runs from July 26 to August 11, with the Paralympics starting on August 28 and continuing until September 8.
Parkopedia has planned the following actions to provide the best parking experience for attendees over the games period:
- Adding 350 approved temporary parking locations that are in place before and throughout the Olympics
- Removing all on-street and off-street parking locations within the red and ‘SILT grey’ event zones
- Sharing updated data for all cities hosting Olympic events
Paris 2024 Olympics parking: special traffic and parking restrictions introduced
The City of Paris, the Ministry of the Interior and the local police are set to introduce a range of traffic and parking restrictions across the city to ensure public safety and the smooth running of the Olympics and Paralympics. These consist of three different types of parking areas: Blue, Red and Grey zones.
Blue zones signify the regulated perimeter for motorised vehicles, with parking possible in these areas but entry to these zones only being granted to those with specific passes. Meanwhile, motorised traffic is prohibited within red zones, except for those with specific authorisation from the games, with parking not available. Pedestrians, cyclists and those on scooters, however, are still able to enter without any paperwork. The final restricted zone is the ‘SILT grey’ zone, a security perimeter beyond which no motorised vehicle access is permitted. Only pedestrians and cyclists with a games pass or an access permit to the ceremony are able to enter.
Source: Prefecture De Police - Security perimeters around Olympic and Paralympic venues
Gold Standard: Parkopedia Paris 2024 Olympics Parking Preparation
Following the introduction of new traffic and parking restrictions and other road network changes, Parkopedia has amended its Paris parking data for the duration of the Olympics and Paralympics. Due to these changes, Parkopedia will be carefully curating and monitoring the data it makes available across the city to reflect the significant changes in parking patterns and increased parking pressure to ensure a successful event.
Parkopedia will monitor the parking situation in the other host cities when other limited-time events, such as football matches, are taking place. These events are not expected to cause fundamental changes to the parking situation beyond what is normally seen on regular event days.
Leaving a Legacy
At the end of the Olympic period, Parkopedia’s data will revert to its normal state, with temporary parking locations being removed, though the parking provisions across Paris could still be impacted by the changing parking situation during the transition period from games restrictions back to the normal parking setup which we will be closely monitoring.
While the Olympics is likely to have a significant impact on travel in Paris and a lasting impact on the city, Parkopedia has prepared specifically for this. Parkopedia’s general practice is to constantly update its global parking and charging data and our prediction algorithms which will also benefit from the additional insights and data gained from the games which will be passed to drivers for optimised Paris travel and future global events. We carry out regular worldwide data checks and ground truth testing to ensure the greatest possible data accuracy and that drivers benefit year-round from the best quality connected car services.
N.B. Parkopedia is not an official Paris 2024 Olympics Partner nor a parking provider. We are the leading connected car service provider, with the largest global parking database and booking system for drivers.