Paris residents vote on tripling parking charges for SUVs

Parisians with residents’ parking will not be impacted under the proposed change and there are other exemptions, including for healthcare workers and people with mobility problems.

Sun, 04 Feb, 2024 - 20:00

Liz Dunphy in Paris

A steady trickle of people flowed through the doors of 38 polling stations across Paris today as residents voted on tripling parking charges for Sports Utility Vehicles (SUVs).

The new charges would be hostile to SUVs coming into the city, costing €225 to park for six hours in central Paris and €150 for six hours in some less central areas.

One of some 300 people manning the polling stations said that turnout was slow but steady.

The referendum asked people whether “the heaviest, bulkiest, and most polluting SUVs in the capital” should face triple the parking charge for non-residents, rising from €6 to €18 an hour in the 1st to 11th arrondissements of the city centre and from €4 to €12 an hour in the rest of the city — the 12th to 20th arrondissements.

After the first two hours, those parking fees would rise further.

Traditional combustion engine or hybrid vehicles weighing more than 1.6 tonnes will be subject to the proposed charge, while electric vehicles (EVs) weighing more than 2 tonnes would also have to pay the increased charge.

Parisians with residents’ parking will not be impacted under the proposed change and other exemptions, including for healthcare workers and people with mobility problems, would be made.

David Belliard, a deputy mayor of Paris in charge of transport, has called for a total ban of the vehicles and said that they should no longer be manufactured.

“SUVs consume more, pollute more, and cause more fatal accidents in the city,” he wrote on X.

Pollution levels in Paris are above recommended limits set by the World Health Organization, according to air quality watchdog Airparif.

'Too many cars in Paris'

Outside a polling centre at the Académie du Climat in the Marais neighbourhood, Dr Betty Jean said casting a vote today was important.

“Micro particles [in pollution that can travel deep into the respiratory tract and cause serious illness] are very dense in Paris," she said. "I don’t know why so many big cars are in this city.

We know that micro particles increase asthma of the kids and also maybe cardiovascular disease. As a doctor, I am very sensitive to this.

“Scientific papers prove there is an increase of almost 17,000 deaths due to pollution in France.

“So the first step is to reduce these big cars in cities.”

Another Parisian voter, Louis Repussard, said that Sunday’s referendum asked an important question and it should pass.

“As a cyclist, I care about urban mobility questions, so it’s important for me to be here," he said.

“I think in general there are too many cars in Paris. We should encourage more to decrease cars and decrease their size. I think SUVs are part of it.

“I think the vote will pass because the people who come to vote will be very interested in the question. But I think the turnout will not be very great.

“But I’m a bit in awe that they asked the citizens. I don’t think they need to go through the people, it could just be introduced by elected representatives.”

At another polling station opposite the iconic Louvre museum, Gregoire, who asked to withhold his surname, said that move could particularly impact families who have little choice but to buy SUVs as these are what are on the market that can carry a number of children.

'Three times is a lot'

“The idea of charging large vehicles is understandable, but three times is a lot,” he said.

“When you have a family with three kids you can only use SUV, and if you have a hybrid or electric vehicle it’s much heavier than a traditional one, so it means you’re beyond the threshold of the charge.

“Electric cars are heavier, so you should not charge by weight. It’s illogical.

“If you park six hours to bring your kids to the museum or whatever, you pay €225. That’s a lot, it’s not reasonable, but the idea is good.”

Cheap models of SUV are now produced, some with the same chassis as a traditional car but with a higher shape, he said.

Some 10m people travel to Paris by car from the surrounding Île-de-France region to shop and for entertainment, with one-third of these visiting cars being SUVs, he said.

“It can be single people who want to show off with an SUV, but it can also be families who have no choice, or it can be someone with a wheelchair," he said.

"So it’s a complicated idea.”

He said that a toll for all cars that enter the city centre — similar to the congestion charge in London — may be a more effective and equitable charge.

“I think one day we will have a toll,” he said.

'Everyone says it will pass'

Back at a polling station in the Marais, Sylvain said that he was not voting as he did not bring his ID card.

But he said that few Parisians drive SUVs, so the vote would ultimately impact those coming into Paris from outside the city who could not vote.

“I think the result is already known,” he said. "Everyone says it will pass.

“There is a lot of advertising now to buy these cars, a lot of consumption. The type of car pollutes the city and is bad for climate change.

“But the problem is the regulation of the private sector.

“And the problem is people. If you have the money, you can buy this thing. But there should be more reflection in society about what people should be able to buy – it should not only because they have the money to buy it, it should also be about whether it’s good or not.”

Josselin Lefebvre said that industry needed to be incentivised to produce greener, smaller, safer vehicles.

But people also needed to be educated on the impact of advertisements which have been ramping up sales of SUVs.

“You see advertising of a big car, on the road on its own, in the country," he said.

"It looks clean and pure.

“But the reality is that the car is polluting. And in Paris, the car is in a traffic jam.

The advertising is selling a dream, it's reaching deep into the psychology, into the subconscious. But it’s not the truth, it’s not reality.

“It should be replaced by the reality — that if you buy this car it impacts others and the Earth. You are polluting the air of everyone.”

One woman who voted at a station near the Louvre but asked not to be named said that it was important that people were given the choice to vote on issues such as this.

“There are more and more SUVs everywhere, not just in Paris," she said. "And people often drive them alone, to go to work in the morning. I think there are too many.

“Evidently they contribute to pollution more and more.”

'A suppression of liberty'

But another woman said when leaving the polling station: “I’m against, totally against it!

“It’s a suppression of liberty.”

Back in the Marais, Sam, who has lived in Paris for 26 years, said that government should be pressurising car manufacturers instead of asking the people to vote.

“These people are elected to do their job," he said. "And when there’s a difficult subject they go to the people.

“Go talk to the carmakers instead. Put pressure on them.

“I’m a single person, I don’t have a car, I don’t need a car. But what if I have three kids in the suburbs, why do I have to pay €225 for the day?

“And a lot of the streets are already dying with businesses closing. There’s a huge area outside Paris that comes into the city to shop, to eat, go to the theatre. And businesses rely on them.”