Paris:
Twenty years after London began moving to restrict sport utility vehicles, Parisians will vote on Sunday whether to drive gas-guzzlers out of town by tripling parking prices.
The proposal from Anne Hidalgo, the Socialist mayor of Paris, is the most radical in the big city’s battle against large cars, which are accused of increasing emissions, posing a threat to pedestrians and generally taking up too much space.
The number of SUVs on the world’s roads has increased nearly sevenfold since 2010, to approximately 330 million vehicles.
They consume about 20% more fuel than a typical medium-sized car and emitted nearly 1 billion tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) in 2022, about two times Brazil’s total emissions, the International Energy Agency said in a 2023 report. times.
London leads the way
The backlash against SUVs and giant pickups dates back to the 2000s, when wealthy suburbanites began switching from sedans en masse to road-going behemoths formerly used for rough terrain.
Known as “stock exchange tractors” in Norway and “suburban assault trucks” in Britain, the trucks became a much-maligned status symbol.
In 2003, Ken Livingstone, the left-wing mayor of London, imposed a congestion charge on vehicles entering the city center, a major breakthrough in controlling emissions in large cities.
A year later, he specifically targeted SUVs, calling those who use them to drive children to school “complete idiots” and saying the vehicles should be banned from schools.
guerrilla tactics
Taking a cue from London, Paris imposed restrictions on the most polluting vehicles first.
However, the project was shelved in 2005 due to strong opposition from the Automobile Association.
In 2007, Dublin authorities took note of the problem and proposed doubling parking charges for SUVs. They, too, were forced to back down after public outcry.
Between 2005 and 2007, eco-vigilantes in countries such as France and Sweden joined in a massive campaign to deflate SUV tires.
They’ve become more aggressive in the past few years, with a British group called Tire Firefighters drilling holes in the tires of dozens of SUVs.
Penalty parking, registration fees
As the planet’s warming reaches critical levels and SUVs are blamed for rising pedestrian deaths in the United States, lawmakers are back on the warpath against SUVs.
Last year, Washington, D.C., raised registration fees for very large SUVs, requiring owners of vehicles weighing more than 6,000 pounds (about 2,700 kilograms) to pay $500 (460 euros) a year, nearly seven times the cost of a regular sedan.
New York is also considering increasing registration fees based on weight.
In Germany, the Green Party mayor of the southern city of Tübingen, committed to climate neutrality by 2030, increased parking fees for SUVs by 600% in 2022, declaring them no longer a necessity for city life.
But another German city, Freiburg, had to object to an increase in parking fees for longer vehicles after the federal administrative court blocked it.
Meanwhile, London has become an “ultra-low emission zone”, with cars that don’t meet emissions targets paying £12.50 ($16) a day to enter the capital.
Emissions-based parking charges have also been introduced in London and other councils including Bath and North East Somerset.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
Follow us on Google news ,Twitter , and Join Whatsapp Group of thelocalreport.in
