A ring road (also known as circular road, beltline, beltway, circumferential (high)way, loop, bypass or orbital) is a road or a series of connected roads encircling a town, city, or country. The most common purpose of a ring road is to assist in reducing traffic volumes in the urban centre, such as by offering an alternate route around the city for drivers who do not need to stop in the city core. Ring roads can also serve to connect suburbs to each other, allowing efficient travel between them.

Nomenclature

The name "ring road" is used for the majority of metropolitan circumferential routes in Europe, such as the

Berliner Ring is an orbital motorway around the German capital city of Berlin. Colloquially called ''Berliner Ring'', it is predominantly located in the state of Brandenburg, with a short stretch of in Berlin itself. It should not be confused with the ''Ber ...

, the

Brussels Ring The Brussels Ring ( Dutch: ''Grote ring rond Brussel'', French: ''Ring de Bruxelles'') numbered R0, is a ring road surrounding the city of Brussels as well as other smaller towns south of Brussels. It is about long, with 2 or 3 lanes in each direc ...

, the Amsterdam Ring, the

Boulevard Périphérique The Boulevard Périphérique (), often called the Périph', is a controlled-access dual-carriageway ring road in Paris, France. With a few exceptions (see '' Structure and Layout''), it is situated along Paris's administrative limit. The sp ...

around

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

and the

Leeds Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by popula ...

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