Inside Ring Roads

[Yuri]

Updating the ring road finder with Paris, Johannesburg, Berlin, Charleroi and Minsk:

--------------------------- Population --- Length --- Area --- Density

São Paulo (SP-021) ---- 16,907,787 --- 177 km --- 1,687 Km² -- 10,022 inh./Km² (post #4)

Moscow (MKAD) --------- 10,966,684 --- 109 km ----- 887 Km² -- 12,360 inh./Km² (post #11)

London (M25) ----------- 9,775,759 --- 188 km --- 2,170 Km² --- 4,505 inh./Km² (post #1)

Berlin (A 10) ---------- 4,276,429 --- 196 km --- 2,170 Km² --- 1,971 inh./Km² (post #94)

Houston (Beltway 8) ---- 2,217,951 --- 142 km --- 1,353 Km² --- 1,639 inh./Km² (post #88)

Paris (Périph) --------- 2,103,778 ---- 35 km ------ 87 Km² -- 24,312 inh./Km² (post #92)

Minsk (MKAD) ----------- 2,012,896 ---- 56 km ----- 238 Km² --- 8,472 inh./Km² (post #99)

Washington (I-495) ----- 1,959,381 --- 103 km ----- 660 Km² --- 2,969 inh./Km² (post #6)

Johannesburg (N1...)---- 1,696,533 ---- 83 km ----- 416 Km² --- 4,078 inh./Km² (post #93)

Cincinnati (I-275) ------- 913,863 --- 135 km ----- 977 Km² ----- 935 inh./Km² (post #33)

Baltimore (I-695) -------- 907,462 ---- 83 km ----- 390 Km² --- 2,325 inh./Km² (post #72)

Manchester (M60) --------- 862,157 ---- 58 km ----- 155 Km² --- 5,570 inh./Km² (post #49)

Indianapolis (I-465) ----- 564,700 ---- 85 km ----- 481 Km² --- 1,174 inh./Km² (post #71)

Houston (I-610) ---------- 520,576 ---- 61 km ----- 249 Km² --- 2,094 inh./Km² (post #2)

Memphis (I-40...) -------- 257,093 ---- 48 km ----- 213 Km² --- 1,209 inh./Km² (post #70)

Charleroi (R3...) -------- 232,890 ---- 45 km ----- 122 Km² --- 1,909 inh./Km² (post #98)

Ann Arbor (I-94...) ------ 123,892 ---- 36 km ------ 73 Km² --- 1,685 inh./Km² (post #21)

Originally Posted by New Brisavoine

Yuri has a habit of comparing things that make little sense (like his "metropolitan region of London" with 18 million people or more).

Many cities have more than 1 ring roads to start with (Paris has 3 ring roads, Moscow and Beijing also have several ring roads), and the areas encompassed within the ring roads are vastly different from city to city.

Ring roads around the world are not all the same size and some cities have more than one?! Shut up! And I brought two from Houston to the thread and even noticed it!

Thank you for sharing this with us.

[Yuri]

Campinas - Rodovia dos Bandeirantes, Rodovia Dom Pedro I and SP-083

Length: 54.5 km

--- 2022 ------- 2010 ------- 2000 ------- 1991 --------------- Growth --------------- Area --------- Density
666,140 ----- 657,403 ----- 634,605 ----- 595,655 --- +1.3% --- +3.6% --- +6.5% --- 182.3 Km² --- 3,654 inh./Km²

Campinas is by far the 2nd largest highway/logistic hub in Brazil second to São Paulo alone. 100 km north of São Paulo, part of the Macrometropolitan Area and counts 3 million people in its kinda polycentric metro area.

Its ring road is relatively tight, entirely located in the municipality of Campinas and less than 60% of city proper population live inside it.

[Yuri]

Originally Posted by Yuri

São Paulo - Rodoanel Mário Covas (SP-021)

Lenght: 177 km

--- 2022 ------- 2010 ------- 2000 --------- Growth ------------ Area -------- Density
16,907,787 -- 16,250,838 -- 14,419,370 --- +4.0% -- +12.7% --- 1,687 Km² -- 10,022 inh./Km²

The northern section is still under construction and after several delays and it's due to be delivered in 2027. Western section was finished in 2002, southern in 2010 and eastern in 2014.

When completed it will take away tens of thousands of cars from Marginal Tietê, which is reputed to be the busiest highway in the world. São Paulo is Brazil's only national hub, it's the country's crossroads, linking Brazil's South, Southeast and Northeast regions where 84% of Brazilian population live, so thousands and thousands of trucks cross it. As such it's arguably be one of the most important infrastructure project in the entire world. Important to note that are very few accesses to prevent it to be used by local traffic.

About the area surrounded by it, it encircles 12 municipalities that are part of metro area. São Paulo's Rodoanel is lightest shorter than London's M25, but almost 17 million people live inside it, leaving out some 5 million people that live in São Paulo metro area.

We have a glimpse of how dense São Paulo is over a very large area: 26,000 people/sqm. For comparison, New York (City, Nassau and Hudson) gets "only" 10,924,818 people within 1,635 Km² for a 17,300 people/sqm density.

Speaking of São Paulo, the eastern half of the Northern Section (the only one missing) was delivered in Oct 2025. The other half will be delivered by the end of the year, 24 years after the first section in 2002.

That will revolutionize São Paulo as it will remove from Marginal Tietê the passing traffic.

[Yuri]

Milan - Tangenziale di Milano (A 50, A 51 and A52)

Length: 70.4 km

--- 2021 ------- 2011 ------- 2001 ------- 1991 --------------- Growth --------------- Area --------- Density
1,715,560 --- 1,595,445 --- 1,608,734 --- 1,738,689 --- +7.5% --- -0.8% --- -7.5% --- 250.2 Km² --- 6,857 inh./Km²

5th densest area on the list so far, after Paris, Moscow, São Paulo and Minsk. As Milan sprawl avoids south and expand endless to west, north and east, we have vast rural areas in south inside the ring whereas most of population of the metro area live outside it. Milan has also two inner ring roads built above old city walls.

Rome is the most interesting ring road in Italy, very regular, 68.2 km-long, covering 344.2 Km², but it's impossible to find administrative divisions matching with it perfectly. Probably between 2.0-2.1 million live inside it.