Next year, the big cars will have to wear helmets when parking. The Council of Paris voted Thursday in favor of an increase in parking rates for SUVs, these sports utility vehicles type 4 × 4 or pick-up, pointed out by environmental associations and even deflated by collectives.

"SUVs are an ecological aberration, and especially in a city like Paris," pleaded the deputy mobility David Belliard, who supported the wish of his colleagues from the group Les Écologistes. The voted text commits to "set up on 1 January 2024 a progressive pricing of parking according to the duration, motorization, size and weight of cars".

"Autobesity"

Elected officials followed the example of the city of Lyon, which voted in May for such pricing. You should know that the weight and size of cars are constantly increasing in France. Between 1960 and 2017, vehicle weights increased by 62%. "The public space is not extensible, the parking spaces do not widen, as well as the underground car parks," pleaded Frédéric Badina Serpette, elected ecologist who carried the wish, and qualifies this phenomenon of "autobesity".

If the increase in large cars has a negative impact on the environment, because they consume more and emit more fine particles, it also has a negative impact from a safety point of view. According to an AXA study, accidents caused by these large urban 4×4s are up to 25% more numerous than those caused by other cars. Another study, recalled by David Belliard in the Council of Paris, reports that a pedestrian is twice as likely to be killed in the event of a collision with an SUV compared to a sedan.



Solidarity tariff

If for the moment we do not know the extent of this pricing, nor the precise conditions, the wish adopted recommends a "solidarity tariff for families with the lowest incomes as well as for large families". "The requirements for improving air quality must not result in the penalization of the most modest," said the mobility assistant during the session.

At this stage of the simple wish, the text has no binding value and does not give technical details, it engages and "gives an impulse", recalls David Belliard, contacted by 20 Minutes. The elected official is nevertheless pleased with the vote, which according to him "shows that there is a change in the way SUVs are perceived or accepted, despite the way they are presented in advertisements". And to conclude: "All this is evolving!"

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