Parking a van in Paris is dreadfully expensive

Will the vote on the parking of heavy vehicles over 1600 kilos in Paris, by extension, affect those of trucks over 3.5 tonnes?

Let’s keep it simple: the Paris City Hall plans, starting September 2024, to apply to vehicles called “Light” based on their GVWR and exceeding 1600 kg, a tripling of parking fees. This decision will primarily impact tourists and visitors, as residents will still benefit from unchanged resident rates.

In short, the message is: no to visitors, no to suburban tradespeople, no to professionals who operate not with tricycles. Not easy to run a city of 2 million inhabitants. A dangerous autarkic desire that will only reinforce Parisians’ unpopularity at the national level through snobbery and a total disconnect from citizens’ reality. Moreover, some residents of other French cities are calling for a tripling of parking fees for vehicles registered in Paris when they visit their cities. An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth…

The idea is to impose the current rates applied to trucks and other vans over 3.5 tonnes to vehicles over 1.6 tonnes, or 2 tonnes for electric vehicles, which are numerous in the capital to ensure its proper functioning.

The hourly rate is 18 euros, and up to 225 euros for a maximum of 6 hours. But if the invisibilization of surface cars, a flagship of Mayor Anne Hidalgo, is feasible by burying them in underground parking (which benefits private companies…), this is impossible for vans whose size is incompatible with parking facilities.

If the logic of the Paris City Hall is followed, parking rates for trucks over 3.5 tonnes should also skyrocket in the coming months… unless this measure is overturned. The debate now concerns whether the City of Paris has the authority to define what constitutes a light or heavy vehicle, whether polluting or not. There are national standards, Crit’Air stickers in particular, eco-bonus and malus measures, and the mere concept of weight is neither sufficient nor free from demagoguery.

“The ego-mobility” of Paris’ Mayor will be put to the test during the Olympic Games . Elected in 2014, Anne Hidalgo will see her transport policies either praised or ridiculed. And her diversionary tactics regarding SUVs in the city won’t change that.

READ ALSO: Transport: Will Anne Hidalgo sabotage the 2024 Olympics?