Paris 2024: Is the Higher Parking Cost for SUVs Discriminatory?

The recent Paris City Council meeting in early June 2023 approved a super tax for parking an SUV in the capital in 2024.

Is the Paris City Hall in the midst of a remake of class struggle and hunting for new witches? The recent decision by the Paris Council to increase taxes on SUVs starting January 1, 2024, when parking in the capital, seems to demonstrate this. As a symbol of frivolity or arrogance rather than a response to the disastrous state of streets riddled with potholes, SUVs are detested by the current Paris mayor, Anne Hidalgo.

Deemed too polluting due to their size, weight, and emissions, SUVs are no longer allowed to be “quoted.” While the extra cost of parking remains to be defined, other questions arise, as no consensus seems to have been reached: residents-only rates, tourists, surface parking, underground parking?

The announcement effect once again seems very media-driven, and the vote appears to favor limiting parking to residents only when declaring their vehicles to obtain an annual parking permit. An irony in a city undergoing gentrification, where families are packing up due to declining quality and ease of life, as well as skyrocketing prices.

And because there is no shortage of inconsistencies, electric vehicles (by definition larger and heavier to ensure range) will also be affected by this decision, despite the fact that the Paris City Hall has been encouraging them. However, discussions are underway to consider family sizes so as not to penalize “large” families or “modest” households — two terms that are becoming less common in Paris.

Finally, the philosophical question of discrimination arises, which opens the door to many other subjective judgments and foolish deviations such as overweight in public transport if one follows this line of thinking. Will we soon pay for the liter of diesel for buses or the kWh of the metro depending on our body weight? Don’t laugh too quickly…

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