Parisians voted on Sunday to increase parking fees for sport utility vehicles (SUVs) despite criticism and opposition protests.
In Sunday’s referendum, closely watched in other capitals including London, preliminary results showed 54.6 per cent voted in favour of introducing special parking charges for SUVs. However, the turnout – about 5.7 per cent of registered voters in Paris – was lower than Green activists had hoped.
A majority of leftists and environmentalists backed the vote on the Paris council, united behind Socialist mayor Anne Hidalgo.
The new parking tariffs could come into effect in early September. The cost of on-street parking for an SUV or 4×4 car will rise to €18 (£15) an hour in the centre of Paris and €12 an hour in the rest of the city.
The prices will apply to vehicles weighing more than 1.6 tonnes with an internal combustion engine or hybrid vehicles and more than 2 tonnes for electric vehicles. The decision will not apply to parking for Paris residents.
According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), SUVs emit on average 20 per cent more CO2 than the average sedan and account for more than 50 per cent of individual car sales in Europe. Pierre Liscia, a councillor in the right-wing majority (EPP) of the Île-de-France region, said:
This is nothing more and nothing less than yet another tax increase on suburban commuters.
Many opponents of the vote noted the low turnout of about 5-6 per cent of Parisians (about 78,000 people). Opposition members of the Paris City Council (Les républicains, LR) and former EPP MEP Agnès Evren said:
This vote is a “disgrace”, an “ideological-ecological fiasco” that insults participatory democracy.
The Mayor of London said he would closely monitor the effectiveness of the Paris measure. He emphasised:
We always examine policies around the globe. I’m a firm believer in stealing good policies. Rather than inventing [new policies] badly, if other cities are doing stuff that works, we will copy them.
Emmanuel Grégoire, Paris’s deputy mayor, posted on X as voting began:
Heavier, more dangerous, more polluting … SUVs are an environmental disaster.
Last year, Paris held a similar vote on whether electric scooter hire should be banned, and subsequently became the first European capital to do so. The turnout for that vote – 103,000 people, about 7 per cent of registered voters – was higher than for the SUV vote.
Philipp Rode, executive director of LSE Cities, a program at the London School of Economics, said the referendum was “symbolically important.” He claimed:
Paris is a very important city that has been innovating on a lot of things. Ultimately, this could be an education for people. If you want to drive these vehicles somewhere in Arizona, that’s your choice. But in inner cities, they are problematic.
In Lyon, France’s third most populous city, heavy goods vehicles will also have to pay parking fees from June.
