Polling stations in Paris opened on Sunday for a vote on a proposal to triple parking charges for giant SUV-type automobiles, a marketing campaign that has sparked opposition from driver advocacy teams towards town administration.
Some 1.3 million Parisians are eligible to forged their poll on the change, which might see vehicles weighing 1.6 tons or extra charged 18 euros ($19.50) per hour for parking in central areas, or 12 euros additional out.
Fully electrical vehicles must high two tons to be affected, whereas folks dwelling or working in Paris, taxi drivers, tradespeople, well being staff and other people with disabilities would all be exempt.
“The bigger they are, the more they pollute,” Paris’ Socialist mayor Anne Hidalgo mentioned in December to justify the step.
On her watch, town has pedestrianized many streets, together with the banks of the river Seine, and constructed a community of cycle lanes in an effort to discourage driving and scale back dangerous transport emissions.
Environmental group WWF has dubbed SUVs an “aberration,” saying they burn 15% extra gasoline than a basic coupe and value extra to construct and buy.
City corridor has additional pointed to security issues about taller, heavier SUVs, which it says are “twice as deadly for pedestrians as a standard car” in an accident.
The automobiles are additionally singled out for taking on extra public house – whether or not on the street or whereas parked – than others.
Paris authorities say the common automobile has placed on 250 kilograms (550 kilos) since 1990.
Hidalgo, whose metropolis will this summer time host the 2024 Olympics, hardly ever misses an opportunity to boast of the environmental credentials of the city corridor and its drive to drastically scale back automobile use within the middle.
35 million euros per 12 months
But drivers’ teams have attacked the scheme, with Yves Carra of Mobilite Club France saying the “SUV” classification is “a marketing term” that “means nothing”.
He argued that compact SUVs wouldn’t be lined by the measures, which might nevertheless hit family-sized coupes and property vehicles.
Conservative opposition figures on the Paris council say this imprecise focusing on of the referendum “shows the extent of the manipulation by the city government”.
Even amongst fuel-burning vehicles, “a new, modern SUV … does not pollute more, or even pollute less, than a small diesel vehicle built before 2011,” mentioned drivers’ group 40 tens of millions d’automobilistes (40 Million Motorists).
Maud Gatel, a member of parliament from the centrist MoDem get together, mentioned that, “If this was really about limiting pollution, there would be a distinction made between internal combustion and hybrid or electric vehicles.”
The big selection of exemptions would go away nearly 27% of SUVs in Paris unaffected by the upper parking charges, she added, citing figures from analysis agency AAA Data.
Hidalgo’s transport chief David Belliard, of the Green get together, says round 10% of automobiles in Paris can be hit by the upper parking charges, which might usher in as much as 35 million euros per 12 months.
Paris’s anti-SUV push has not gone unnoticed elsewhere in France, with the Green get together mayor in Lyon planning a three-tier parking payment for each residents and guests from June.
The final metropolis referendum in Paris, on banning hop-on, hop-off rental scooters from the capital’s streets, handed in an April 2023 vote – however solely drew a turnout of seven%.
Source: www.dailysabah.com