Parisians voted on Sunday to muscle SUVs off the French capital’s streets by making them three times more expensive to park, while calling on London to follow suit.
It is the latest move in a drive by Socialist Mayor Anne Hidalgo to make the host city for this year’s Olympic Games greener and friendlier for pedestrians and cyclists.
On the face of it, the result appears fairly resounding. More than 54% of the votes cast in the election supported the measure to triple parking fees for large SUV drivers from out of town to 18 euros (£15.30) per hour in the city’s centre.
But the election saw a low turnout. Only 5.7 percent of the 1.3 million eligible voters cast ballots at the 39 voting stations around the city.
This suggests that of the roughly 75,000 people who voted in the referendum, 40,000 voted in favour of the move – meaning roughly just 3.25 percent of the Paris electorate actually cast a vote siding with the decision. Nevertheless, the vote gives Paris council to implement the new charges by September.
Meanwhile, Hidalgo called on London and other cities to follow Paris’s lead.
Parisians voted on Sunday to muscle SUVs off the French capital’s streets by making them three times more expensive to park, and called on London to follow suit
The vote is the latest move in a drive by Socialist Mayor Anne Hidalgo to make the host city for this year’s Olympic Games greener and friendlier for pedestrians and cyclists
The Mayor of the ferociously anti-car French capital said she was delighted by the result of a referendum, aimed at tackling air pollution and road safety problems.
Hidalgo said: ‘Parisians have made a clear choice – other cities will follow,’ adding that higher prices for large, heavy, and very expensive vehicles was ‘a form of social justice’.
In get-out-the-vote posts on social media, Hidalgo argued that SUVs take up too much space on narrow Parisian streets, are too polluting and ‘threaten our health and our planet,’ and cause more traffic accidents than smaller cars.
‘The time has come to break with this tendency for cars that are always bigger, taller, wider,’ she said. ‘You have the power to take back ownership of our streets.’
The policy was previously backed by London Mayor Sadiq Khan who labelled it ‘innovative’.
Mr Khan, who can sometimes be seen being ferried around the capital in his £300,000 taxpayer-funded armour-plated Range Rover, said heavier vehicles ‘take up more space’ and create ‘issues around carbon emissions and so forth.
When quizzed on Ms Higaldo’s policy, he told The Guardian: ‘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.’
The policy was previously backed by London Mayor Sadiq Khan who labelled it ‘innovative’
The Mayor of the ferociously anti-car French capital – Anne Hidalgo (picture casting her vote on Sunday) – said she was delighted by the result of a referendum, aimed at tackling air pollution and road safety problems by cutting down the number of SUVs on Paris’s streets
Mr Khan, who has been heavily scrutinised for his hated Ulez scheme, added: ‘We know some councils in London are taking bold policies in relation to parking fees, in relation to your tickets and so forth.’
In north London, Islington council charges parked cars depending on the weight of a motor, while Lambeth is looking at similar measures.
Parking charges across London’s boroughs vary.
Taking Westminster as an example, per-hour charges range from £1.94 to £5.80, or from £2.91 to £8.70 for Pre-2015 Diesel vehicles, depending on the parking zone.
Should London implement a similar measure to Paris that would see parking charges for SUVs triple, then the per-hour charge for many drivers will rise over £15 per hour.
In the case of pre-2015 Diesel SUV owners, parking could cost £26 per hour.
A spokesman for Mr Khan said that the mayor had ‘no plans’ to introduce an SUV parking charge in the capital, adding: ‘The Mayor was making the point that leaders across the world are exploring innovative ways of tackling air pollution and improving road safety, and the Mayor continues to monitor these.’
Calls in London to restrict or even ban large SUVs in London have grown in recent years for the same reasons as they have in Paris.
These calls were amplified in July 2023 after a Land Rover Defender crashed through a Wimbledon school fence, killing two children and injuring several more.
In get-out-the-vote posts on social media, Hidalgo argued that SUVs take up too much space on narrow Parisian streets, are too polluting and ‘threaten our health and our planet,’ and cause more traffic accidents than smaller cars
Despite a low turnout, the the vote still gives Paris council to implement the new charges by September, while the city’s mayor called on London and other cities to follow its lead
Pictured: An SUV is seen driving through Paris on February 4 as the vote took place
Paris is the home of the global climate change agreement of 2015, and is at the forefront of the campaign to reduce dangerous emissions.
It has already closed major roads to cars, and there will be many more restrictions by the time the 2024 Paris Olympics starts in July.
The new SUV prices will apply to vehicles weighing more than 1.6 tonnes with a combustion engine or hybrid vehicles, and more than 2 tonnes for electric vehicles.
Tony Renucci, of the air quality pressure group Respire, said: ‘The result of the vote is a victory for Paris residents’ quality of life.’
Mr Renucci added: ‘These monsters on wheels are no longer wanted on our streets’.
And Emmanuel Gregoire, the deputy mayor of Paris, said ‘SUVs are an environmental disaster’.
The mini-referendum was open to Parisians registered to vote.
The question they were asked was: ‘For or against the creation of a specific rate for the parking of heavy, bulky, polluting individual cars?’
Cyreane Demur, a 20-year-old student, voted in the chic 8th arrondissement that includes that car-clogged Champs-Elysées boulevard and its chaotic traffic circle around the monumental Arc de Triomphe.
Demur said heavier cars make congestion ‘even more complicated’ and that ‘one must consider the ecology, the parking issues.’
But Jadine L’Orlendu, a 75-year-old voter, said SUVs ‘do not disturb me, they do not take more space than other cars, the parking places are marked, and people should drive what they want to drive. It’s about freedom.’
A person votes during a referendum on higher parking fees for SUVs, at a polling station in Paris, France, 04 February 2024
There was a referendum to ban rented electric scooters in Paris last August, and it led to Paris becoming the first European city to do so.
In a country of car-lovers, home to Renault, Citroen and Peugeot, Hidalgo has worked for years to make Paris less car-friendly.
Motor vehicles have been barred entirely from some roads, most notably a River Seine embankment that used to be a busy highway.
It’s become a central Paris haven for cyclists, runners, families and romantics since Hidalgo closed it to motor traffic in 2016.
More bike lanes are being added for the July 26-Aug. 11 Olympics and Paralympic Games that follow, and the city has also reduced the number of on-street parking spaces in order to make drivers use underground parking.
There was a 70 percent rise in the use of bikes between the end of the Covid lockdowns and 2023.
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