The mayor of the French capital has declared war on cars in Paris. Now she had a referendum held. The result is something to talk about.
Parking in the capital will soon become massively more expensive for heavy cars.
Sarah Meyssonnier / Reuters
Parking fees for city off-road vehicles (SUVs) in Paris will triple. This was decided by the residents of the French capital in a vote on Sunday. Around 55 percent of those who voted were in favor of increasing parking fees. In the future, SUV drivers from outside the city who want to park their car in the center of the French capital will have to pay 18 euros per hour; in the outer city districts it will be 12 euros per hour.
Under the new regulations, combustion engine and hybrid models weighing 1.6 tons or more are considered SUVs. Around 900,000 cars that are currently registered in and around Paris fall into this category. This corresponds to around 16 percent of the registered vehicles in the city. The fees apply to electric SUVs weighing more than 2 tons.
The increase in fees should be a signal to car manufacturers, said Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo in the run-up to the vote. They would build ever heavier, more expensive and, above all, dirtier cars, which would then destroy the environment, says Hidalgo. The socialist also argued that the off-road vehicles endangered road safety. Accidents involving an SUV are more likely to be fatal, the Paris city government argues. Ultimately, the large vehicles simply took up too much space on the notoriously congested streets in Paris.
A vote against cars from the periphery
However, the special tariff for SUVs should only affect non-residents. Residents who have a neighborhood parking permit are also exempt from the regulation, as are taxis, tradesmen and nursing services. On Sunday, the residents of the capital were able to vote on something that will largely affect others. Participation in the vote was correspondingly low: just 6 percent of those eligible to vote took part.
«Parisians are being asked whether they agree that those who live outside the city have to pay more. Of course they will vote yes!” said Pierre Chasseray, representative of the automobile association 40 million d’automobilistes, on French radio, annoyed by the unfair starting point in the vote.
The tendentious questioning on the ballot paper also caused criticism. This was: “Are you for or against the introduction of a special tariff for parking heavy, bulky and environmentally harmful private cars?” The off-road vehicle drivers are now being made a scapegoat, although Mayor Hidalgo is actually aiming to finally eradicate cars from the capital entirely, said Chasseray.
Hidalgo continues her anti-car course
In fact, Hidalgo and her red-green city government have been pushing forward the transport transition in the capital for years and are happy to accept protests for this. The mayor had the streets along the Seine closed. Pedestrians in the city can now stroll along the river undisturbed. The cycle paths are also constantly being expanded – at the expense of parking spaces and street space.
In addition, the speed limit of 30 applies almost everywhere in the city, and the speed limit on the ring motorway around the city center will soon be reduced from 70 to 50 kilometers per hour. The measures are intended to reduce accidents, curb high levels of air pollution in the city and counteract global warming. This regularly heats up the minds of motorists. But there are fewer and fewer of them in the capital.
Only around 30 percent of Parisian households have their own car. In everyday life, bikes, metros and buses are simply more efficient. Until spring 2023, thousands of people were traveling around the city on electric rental scooters. Mayor Hidalgo soon became too colorful. It was she herself who brought the vehicles into the city in 2018. Even back then, she asked the population whether they wanted the many rental scooters that had become a nuisance to be banned. This was successful, even if only a few Parisians went to the polls. At least 7 percent of those eligible to vote still cast a vote, and a clear majority of almost 90 percent no longer wanted rental scooters in the city.