Paris says to call vote on heavy SUV parking fee hike

PARIS: The city of Paris will ask residents to vote on a plan to increase parking fees for heavy SUVs, Mayor Anne Hidalgo said on Tuesday.

City hall said in a statement that the overall space taken up by cars had diminished thanks to its “determined action” but that the average size and weight of cars had gone up. The vote, to be held in February, will be the second city-wide referendum on urban matters, after residents in April voted to ban rental e-scooters from the capital.

Sport Utility Vehicles (SUVs) 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”.

Quoted in the statement, Hidalgo said the fee increase would be “very significant”. She did not, however, give a figure, or say what weight threshold would make an SUV “heavy”. If the vote goes in favour of the fee hike, it would not concern SUV owners with residential parking permits issued by the city.