Paris Hikes Parking Fee For SUVs, Bulky Vehicles To US$20 Per Hour

PARIS, Oct 8 (Bernama-dpa) -- Anyone visiting Paris by car is being made to pay drastically higher parking rates for large vehicles from October onwards, with one hour's parking now costing €18 (US$20) for SUVs and other bulky vehicles, while six hours costs as much as €225 (US$250), the German news agency (dpa) reported.

Outside the city centre, the rates are slightly lower. Residents of the capital, tradespeople and the disabled are among those exempt from the new laws.

In a public survey at the beginning of February, in which just under 6 per cent of those eligible to vote took part, 54.5 per cent were in favour of the increase in parking fees.

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The new fees apply to combustion and hybrid models weighing 1.6 tonnes or more and electric models weighing two tonnes or more. The regulation does not apply to private car parks.

The city argues that heavy vehicles cause increased pollution, take up a lot of public space and jeopardise road safety.

Monitoring the new regulation is said to be relatively simple. Paid parking has been monitored in Paris for some time using video vans that record the licence plates of parked cars.

Anyone who parks must first enter their licence plate number at the parking machine. By automatically comparing the licence plates, the city has access to the owner and vehicle data and therefore knows which weight class the parked cars fall into.

By consulting the public, Mayor Anne Hidalgo is confident that she has the backing for a further change in urban mobility, which she is driving forward with left-wing city government coalition, even in the face of resistance.

Years ago, she closed a number of riverside roads along the Seine to cars and made them accessible to pedestrians. The cycle path network in Paris is growing, which means that the number of car lanes and car parks is being reduced.

New green spaces are being created and a 30 km/h speed limit has been introduced almost everywhere in the city. Just over a year ago, e-scooter hire in Paris also came to an end after a majority voted against the scooters in a public survey.

And from the beginning of October, despite protests even from the transport minister, the mayor is implementing another measure that is upsetting many motorists. On the city motorway, the busy "Périphérique", the speed limit will be reduced from 70 to 50.

Above all, this should mean less noise for the many residents living along the motorway. In any case, the average speed on the ring motorway at peak times is well below 50 kilometres per hour.

-- BERNAMA-dpa