Paris to vote on parking charge for out-of-town SUVs as mayor goes to war on motorists

Drivers of SUVs will have to pay €18 an hour to park in the city centre – three times the current €6 – if voters back mayor’s plans

Parisians are voting on whether to triple parking fees for out-of-town SUV drivers as part of the mayor’s anti-car and clean air campaign. 
At polling stations across the city on Sunday, Parisians are answering “yes” or “no” to the question: “For or against the creation of a specific rate for the parking of heavy, bulky, polluting individual cars?”
Drivers of SUVs will have to pay €18 an hour to park in the city centre – three times the current €6 price – if voters back plans by Anne Hidalgo, the socialist mayor.
Elsewhere in the city, parking rates for SUVs would rise from €4 to €12. The bylaw would apply to all combustion engine or plug-in hybrid vehicles weighing more than 1.6 tonnes, and electric vehicles weighing more than two tonnes. The fare increase could bring in an extra €35 million to city coffers.
The new parking levies could affect popular models such as the Land Rover Discovery and Jeep Wrangler, but would not apply to Paris residents, taxi drivers, health professionals and parking permit holders for people with disabilities.
Last week, Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of London, indicated that he would be watching the results closely, telling The Guardian: “We always examine policies around the globe. I’m a firm believer in stealing good policies. Rather than inventing [new policies] badly, if other cities are doing stuff that works, we will copy them.”
A spokesman for the mayor was quick to stress that Mr Khan had no plans to implement the parking levies in London.
Ms Hidalgo’s offensive against SUVs portrays them as a menace to street safety and air quality. The cars represent about 40 per cent of new car sales in France.
Over the last 30 years, cars have become bulkier and heavier, taking up more space on streets. Because of their size, SUV collisions with pedestrians and cyclists are twice as likely to be fatal compared to collisions with a standard car, Paris has said.
Meanwhile, figures from the International Energy Agency show that in 2022, SUVs were responsible for one billion tonnes of CO2 emissions. For context, if SUVs were a country, they would rank as sixth most polluting country in the world.
“There’s no need for big cars like that,” Jacques Milman, 64, a musician and cyclist, told the Telegraph after voting in favour of the mayor’s plan, although he said he would have preferred to see SUV drivers given time limits for parking in the city.
Deborah Schlumberger, 30, also voted in favour, telling The Telegraph: “I want to live in a city that’s more peaceful and healthier. Paris is a city that can be hyper-aggressive in terms of noise. There’s continuous noise, air pollution, and though SUVs aren’t the big bad guys, they are part of the problem.”
But some opponents have criticised the mayor’s plan as shortsighted, claiming smaller, older cars can be more polluting than a new SUV model.
Philippe Noziere, the president of 40 Millions d’Automobilistes, an organisation that advocates for drivers, denounced the referendum as a “sham of democracy” and told French TV channel BFMTV: “It’s a big farce.”
Last week, the French city of Lyon announced plans to forge ahead with a similar parking fare scheme, without putting it to a public vote.