Parisians to vote on extra parking fees for SUVs

Parisians will on Sunday have the chance to vote on plans to increase parking fees for SUVs.

Published: 14 November 2023 18:20 CET
Updated: 2 February 2024 11:56 CET

Parisians to vote on extra parking fees for SUVs

Paris' mayor Anne Hidalgo Photo by Geoffroy VAN DER HASSELT / AFP

The vote comes after City Hall said last November that space taken up by cars in the French capital had fallen thanks to its “determined action” but that the average size and weight of cars had gone up.

The vote, which takes place on Sunday, February 4th, will be the second city-wide referendum on urban matters, after residents voted to ban rental e-scooters from the capital last April.

If the plan is approved, residents can expect rapid action. Rented electric scooters vanished from Paris streets just a few months after the vote, in September.

Sport Utility Vehicles (SUVs), sometimes known as 4x4s, can weigh 2,700 kilos or more, around a third more than regular automobiles.

“They’re accident-prone, heavy, bulky and polluting,” the mayor’s office said, and had been identified as “the cause of many problems in the public space”.

As well as having higher emissions levels, safety concerns have also been raised about SUVs due to the higher risk of injury to a pedestrian or cyclist in case of a collision.

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The French government already imposes extra taxes on vehicles that weigh over 1.6 tonnes, which includes most medium and large SUVs.

If the vote goes in favour of the fee hike, it would not concern SUV owners with residential parking permits issued by the city.

The mayor’s office said it hoped to send “a message” to auto companies inciting them to stop “their race to gigantism that is unsuitable to quality of life in the city”.

This, it said, would “allow an improved sharing of public spaces in favour of clean mobility, streets with schools and pedestrians”.

SUVs accounted for 49 percent of new passenger car sales in the European Union last year, according to the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association.

The French city of Lyon is also introducing extra charges for parking for SUVs.

In April, Parisians voted overwhelmingly to banish for-hire electric scooters from the streets of the French capital. Turnout for the referendum was 100,000, representing just under 7.5 percent of the capital’s registered voters.

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Once a preferred spot for gala premieres, the UGC Normandie was one of several grand cinemas on the Champs-Elysées that made the area a hub for film buffs in the 1960s and 70s.

But the street long ago lost its cool among Parisians, becoming increasingly dominated by flagship fashion stores and tourists taking snaps of the Arc de Triomphe.

The UGC cinema chain said it faced a “very sharp increase in rent” at the location, which is owned by the Qatari royal family.

Two other famed cinemas on the boulevard, the George V and Gaumont Marignan, have closed since 2020.

“The cinema is disappearing in somewhat terrible circumstances for the whole culture,” said a former employee, 22-year-old Yann Raffin, adding that he feels both “sadness” and “anger”.

“This avenue is transforming into an avenue reserved for the ultra-rich,” he told AFP.

The last screening on Wednesday night was “La La Land” with Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling, a fitting tribute to Hollywood musicals of a bygone era.

Its director, Damien Chazelle, appeared on screen with a special message for the sold-out crowd.

“This room was an extension of my own life, it was a friend and an ally,” said Mehdi Omais, 40, a film journalist, visibly moved.

“It’s heartbreaking to see it close and to see this avenue becoming a cemetery of cinemas.”

An auction of the chairs and decor was due on Thursday, including the huge letters on the outside, with proceeds going to a charity that organises screenings for hospitalised children.

Paris remains a film-going hotspot and still has more cinemas per head than anywhere in the world, with swanky new theatres opening elsewhere in the city.

They include a state-of-the-art Pathe cinema near the Opera Garnier, designed by architect Renzo Piano who created the Pompidou Centre and The Shard in London.