Parisians Vote To Make It Much More Expensive To Park SUVs In City | EUROtoday

PARIS (AP) — Parisians voted Sunday to muscle SUVs off the French capital's streets by making them way more costly to park from fall, the most recent leg in a drive by Socialist Mayor Anne Hidalgo to make the host metropolis for this yr's Olympic Games greener and friendlier for pedestrians and cyclists.

More than 54% of the votes solid within the low-turnout election supported the measure to triple parking charges for big SUV drivers from out of city to 18 euros ($19.50) per hour within the metropolis's middle, based on official outcomes from City Hall. Only 5.7% of the 1.3 million eligible voters solid ballots on the 39 voting stations across the metropolis.

In get-out-the-vote posts on social media, Hidalgo argued that SUVs take up an excessive amount of house on slim Parisian streets, are too polluting and “threaten our health and our planet,” and trigger extra site visitors accidents than smaller vehicles. The further charges will come into drive from Sept. 1, Hidalgo mentioned.

“The time has come to break with this tendency for cars that are always bigger, taller, wider,” she mentioned. “You have the power to take back ownership of our streets.”

The value for non-residents to park SUVs in Paris' central districts, within the arrondissements numbered 1 by way of 11, would soar to 18 euros ($19.5) per hour for the primary two hours, in comparison with 6 euros per hour for smaller vehicles.

After that, parking would develop into more and more punitive. A six-hour stick with an SUV — sufficient in contrast, say, to absorb a present and a restaurant — would value a whopping 225 euros ($243), to 75 euros for smaller autos.

Away from the guts of the town, in Paris' outer arrondissements numbered 12 by way of 20, an out-of-town SUV driver would pay 12 euros per hour for the primary two hours, progressively rising to 150 euros for six hours.

The mini-referendum was open to Parisians registered to vote. The query they have been requested 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 scholar, voted within the stylish eighth arrondissement that features that car-clogged Champs-Elysées boulevard and its chaotic site visitors circle across the monumental Arc de Triomphe.

Demur mentioned heavier vehicles make congestion “even more complicated” and that “one must consider the ecology, the parking issues.”

But Jadine L'Orlendu, a 75-year-old voter, mentioned 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.”

The vote follows one other City Hall session final yr on whether or not to ban for-hire electrical scooters. The 15,000 opinion-dividing mini-machines have been subsequently banned from Paris streets after practically 90% of the 103,000 voters rejected e-scooters.

In a rustic of car-lovers, dwelling to Renault, Citroen and Peugeot, Hidalgo has labored for years to make Paris much less car-friendly. Motor autos have been barred completely from some roads, most notably a River Seine embankment that was a busy freeway. It's develop into a central Paris haven for cyclists, runners, households and romantics since Hidalgo closed it to motor site visitors in 2016.

More bike lanes are being added for the July 26-Aug. 11 Olympics and Paralympic Games that comply with.

But City Hall says that as automobile site visitors has steadily decreased, down by half for the reason that finish of the Nineteen Nineties, SUVs are denting the progress and fouling the air with their oversize dimensions. City Hall says that SUV collisions with pedestrians are twice as lethal than accidents involving smaller vehicles. It notes that two-thirds of Parisians now don't personal a automobile.

City Hall's proposed ramped-up parking costs would apply to standard or hybrid-engined SUVs from out of city that weigh 1.6 tons or extra and a couple of tons or extra in the event that they're totally electrical.

Leicester reported from Le Pecq, France.