Parisians Vote to Penalize SUVs with Outrageous Parking Fees

Out of the 1.3 million eligible voters, only 5.7% of them used the 39 voting locations located around the city.

In an effort to make the city that will host this year’s Olympic Games greener and more bike- and pedestrian-friendly, socialist Mayor Anne Hidalgo secured the vote on Sunday to get SUVs off the streets of the French capital by making parking significantly more expensive starting in the fall.

According to official findings from City Hall, the proposal to raise parking rates for heavy SUV drivers from out of town to 18 euros ($19.50) per hour in the city center was backed by more than 54% of the votes cast in the low-turnout poll. Out of the 1.3 million eligible voters, only 5.7% of them used the 39 voting locations located around the city.

Hidalgo said in get-out-the-vote posts on social media that SUVs are more likely to cause traffic accidents than smaller cars, take up too much space on Parisian streets, and are excessively polluting, “threaten our health and our planet.” According to Hidalgo, the increased levies will take effect on September 1.

She declared, “It’s time to stop having cars that are always bigger, taller, and wider.” “You possess the ability to reclaim control over our roads.”

In contrast to smaller automobiles, which only cost 6 euros per hour, parking an SUV in Paris’ central districts—the arrondissements 1 through 11—would cost non-residents 18 euros ($19.50) per hour for the first two hours.

Parking would then grow more and more restrictive after that. An SUV would cost a whooping 225 euros ($243) for a six-hour stay, which is enough time to see a concert and eat, compared to 75 euros for smaller vehicles.

Outside the city limits, in the outlying arrondissements of Paris 12 through 20, an outsider driving an SUV would get paid 12 euros an hour for the first two hours, and then 150 euros for the whole six hours.

Voting Parisians were eligible to participate in the mini-referendum. “For or against the creation of a specific rate for the parking of heavy, bulky, polluting individual cars?” was the question posed to them.

In the posh 8th arrondissement, which encompasses the congested Champs-Elysées street and its disorganized traffic circle surrounding the imposing Arc de Triomphe, voted 20-year-old student Cyreane Demur.

Demur stated that “one must consider the ecology, the parking issues” and that “heavier cars make congestion even more complicated.”

SUVs, however, “do not disturb me, they do not take more space than other cars, the parking places are marked, and people should drive what they want to drive,” according to 75-year-old voter Jadine L’Orlendu. It has to do with freedom.

The decision comes after a second City Hall consultation on the possibility of outlawing electric scooters for hire last year. After nearly 90% of the 103,000 voters rejected e-scooters, the 15,000 divisive mini-machines were later removed from Paris streets.

With Renault, Citroen, and Peugeot based in this car-loving nation, Hidalgo has spent years trying to make Paris less car-friendly. Some roadways, like an embankment along the River Seine that was formerly a popular thoroughfare, are completely off-limits to motor vehicles. Hidalgo blocked off the area to cars in 2016, and since then, it has developed into a sanctuary for families, lovers, bikers, and runners in downtown Paris.

In preparation for the July 26–August 11 Olympics and Paralympic Games, more bike lanes are being built.

However, according to City Hall, SUVs are obstructing development and polluting the air due to their excessive size even though car traffic has consistently declined—it has reduced by half since the end of the 1990s. According to City Hall, SUV crashes involving pedestrians result in twice as many deaths as those involving smaller cars. It mentions that the majority of Parisians are currently car-free.

The increased parking fees proposed by City Hall would be applicable to out-of-town SUVs with conventional or hybrid engines that weigh 1.6 tons or more, or 2 tons or more if they are entirely electric.