Anne Hidalgo Wants to Triple Parking Fees for SUVs in Paris

This proposal to penalize the heaviest vehicles in Paris will be put to a vote on February 4th during a citizen referendum.

As soon as she returned from Polynesia, Anne Hidalgo did not hesitate to jump back onto her favorite battleground. Against the nasty cars! After this little joke, let’s try not to fall into easy irony and bad faith. You can’t fight autophobic attitudes with the same weapons the autophobes use.

In a message on social media, Anne Hidalgo expressed the exasperation of Parisians at these “Polluting big cars that are taking up more and more space in our streets, on our sidewalks or even on our bike lanes.” It is therefore necessary to curb this phenomenon by limiting the space occupied by SUVs and 4x4s in the urban environment. Who’s to blame? Those nasty manufacturers who push us to buy ever larger and more resource-intensive vehicles, and thus more polluting. And yes, according to the mayor, SUVs are 20% more polluting than regular cars. WWF says so, so it must be true… No irony here, just facts.

The solution? Tripling non-residential parking rates for these vehicles to a rate of 18 euros per hour in the central districts and 12 euros in the outer districts.

This measure will affect diesel or hybrid rechargeable vehicles over 1.6 tons and electric vehicles of 2 tons or more.

So, is a big car necessarily more dangerous and more polluting than a small one? Regardless of the vehicle’s age and technology and who is driving it? We, motorists, are making many efforts to change our travel habits. Before worrying about the danger posed by SUVs, perhaps we should first ensure the possibility of circulating freely in Paris when car use is necessary. And what about accessibility to the Metro and public infrastructure for people with disabilities?

Vox Populi, Vox Dei, the final word will be up to Parisians on February 4th.

READ ALSO: Anne Hidalgo criticized by the Government on the 50 km/h ring road