Source: AFP
Parisians will be asked to vote on Sunday on whether to triple the cost of parking Sports Utility Vehicles (SUVs) in the French capital, a move denounced as manipulation by motorists’ groups.
Polls will be open from 9:00 am. to 7:00 p.m. (0800 – 1800 GMT) in 38 polling stations for 1.3 million voters to answer: “For or against creating a special tariff for parking passenger cars that are heavy, bulky and polluting.”
Under the plan, internal combustion or hybrid vehicles weighing more than 1.6 tonnes — two tonnes for electrics — would be charged 18 euros ($19.60) an hour for parking in the city center and 12 euros on the outskirts districts.
Parisians with resident parking permits, taxis, traders, health workers and disabled people will be exempt from the fee.
Paris has already pedestrianized the streets along the Seine River, banned private cars from the central Rue de Rivoli, built bike lanes across the city and closed several local roads.
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![](https://images.yen.com.gh/images/1562fd9534667281.jpg?impolicy=cropped-image&imwidth=256)
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Justifying the latest proposed measure, Socialist Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo said in December: “The bigger they are, the more they pollute.”
Hidalgo also argued that SUVs are monopolizing the space: city officials said the size of the average car had increased by 250 kilograms (550 pounds) since 1990.
“I push too hard”
Drivers’ groups attacked the plan. SUV is “a marketing term” that “doesn’t mean anything,” said Yves Carra of Mobilite Club France.
And while compact SUVs would not be covered by the measures, they would hit family-sized coupes and cars, he argued.
Conservative opposition figures in the Paris council say this inaccurate targeting of the referendum “shows the extent of the manipulation by the city government”.
“A new, modern SUV does not pollute more, or may even pollute less, than a small diesel vehicle manufactured before 2011,” said the 40 million d’automobilistes (40 million motorists) drivers’ group.
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![](https://images.yen.com.gh/images/793fd5f008bccf71.jpg?impolicy=cropped-image&imwidth=256)
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“All you want is to disturb motorists in their daily lives,” a senior member of the group, Pierre Chasseray, told news channel BFM TV, denouncing Hidalgo’s plan.
“You push too hard, something will give, something will break,” he added.
Source: AFP
Hidalgo has built a reputation by turning Paris into an eco-friendly city as it prepares to host the 2024 Olympics this summer.
Her office claims the measures will affect around 10% of parked cars in Paris and bring in an extra €35m a year.
The latest city referendum in Paris, to ban hop-on, hop-off scooter rentals from the capital’s streets, passed in a vote in April 2023 — but garnered only 7 percent.
Hidalgo will be hoping for a higher turnout on Sunday.
Source: AFP