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An event is held in Paris on Sunday referendum on the proposal to triple parking fees for the heaviest, bulkiest and most polluting car models, to be applied only to non-resident motorists. From the end of 2023 the city streets are carpeted of posters with the words: “More or less SUVs in Paris?”. The proposal is part of an extensive plan approved by the city government and mayor Anne Hidalgo, of the Socialist Party, to discourage the use of cars. And it was promoted, as well as by activist groups, by many residents who had complained about heavy traffic in secondary streets, the lack of green spaces and poor safety for pedestrians.
If the yes vote wins, parking an SUV or 4×4 car will cost 18 euros an hour in the center and 12 euros an hour in the rest of the city. The new tariffs would be valid for vehicles heavier than 1.6 tonnes, with combustion or hybrid engines, and for all those heavier than 2 tonnes, including electric vehicles. Despite opposition from right-wing parties and some motorists’ groups, the results of a survey conducted in January by the OpinionWay company for the newspaper The Parisian indicate that 61 percent of the inhabitants of Paris are in favor of the proposed measures.
(City of Paris/Paris.fr)
For a similar consultative referendum held in April 2023, on the proposal to ban rental electric scooters in Paris, the turnout was very low. Around 103 thousand citizens had voted, out of 1.3 million registered voters, and the proposal had been approved by 89 percent of voters. A good turnout in the referendum on increasing parking fees for SUVs would avoid providing pretexts for the centre-right opposition to undermine the legitimacy of the referendum, as it had already done for the one on scooters.
The newspaper The world he wrote that some voters might even abstain because they are disappointed by the misleading message contained in the posters: “More or less SUVs in the city?”. In fact, the questions proposed do not concern the quantity of SUVs allowed in the city, but the rates for parking them. And in general, second The worldthe historic low turnout in local referendums shows how risky they are in terms of consensus, because the majority of administrations prefer to adopt the measures for which they were elected rather than submit new ones to the evaluation of the population.
Proposals of the same type as the one that will be voted on on Sunday in Paris have, however, also been presented and approved in other French cities, including Lyon and Bordeaux. But since the definition of SUV is not unique, he wrote The Parisian, the weight criteria of the vehicles to be taken into consideration for the increase in tariffs change depending on the different decisions made by each city. Just as the decision to apply tariffs only to non-residents changes in some cases.
Both in France and in other countries, SUVs have long been among the best-selling vehicles: yes esteem that the quantity in Paris has increased by approximately 60 percent in just under five years, going from 108 thousand to 170 thousand (15 percent of the total of approximately 1.15 million private vehicles present). On the part of the administrations of many large cities in Europe, including Londona certain concern has grown in parallel due to the fact that the streets in the center were not built taking into account the dimensions of such large vehicles.
According to a recent relationship of the European Federation for Transport and the Environment, new car models are on average one centimeter wider every two years. And about half of new cars sold are too wide for the available parking space on the streets of many large cities. Among the 100 best-selling models in 2023, 52 percent exceed 180 cm in width, which is the minimum parking width on public roads in Paris and in other cities.
There are also safety and pollution issues. SUVs are bulkier than normal cars and not suitable for narrow streets, and contribute to creating traffic on large boulevards. According to various analyses, they are less safe for pedestrians and cyclists, and also for those traveling in smaller cars. Furthermore, the larger a car is, the more it consumes and pollutes, even if it is electric: since the heavier they are, the more energy is needed to make them move. The tariffs that would come into force if the proposal were approved, however, make a distinction between models with emissions (heat engine and hybrid) and electric ones, which would be exempt (in 2022 they represented just 2.2 percent of the total vehicles registered in Paris).
Other measures introduced in Paris in recent years have sought to discourage the use of the car, creating new pedestrian areas, cycle paths and zones with a 30 km/h traffic limit. And in just over ten years, according to the mayorhave made it possible to reduce traffic by 40 percent and also significantly reduce air pollution.