Paris mayor says her metropolis has too many SUVs, so she’s asking voters to determine on a parking price hike

PARIS — Does Paris have too many SUVs? The mayor is placing that query to voters within the runup to subsequent 12 months’s Olympic Video games, the most recent salvo in her long-running marketing campaign to make the town extra pleasant to pedestrians and the planet, and fewer pleasant to automobiles.

Voters will probably be requested on Feb. 4 whether or not to impose a “very vital” hike in parking charges for SUVs visiting the town, Mayor Anne Hidalgo mentioned Tuesday in a video posted on-line.

“A lot of you complain that there are nonetheless too many large polluting SUVs taking on extra space on our streets and on our sidewalks,’’ she mentioned. She hopes the vote will ship a message to carmakers to cease “pushing to purchase ever-bigger, dearer, extra resource-guzzling, extra polluting’’ autos.

Metropolis Corridor wouldn’t specify the scale of the “very vital” hike or when it could take impact if authorised. It’s also not clear which autos can be particularly focused. It might not apply to Parisians with parking permits.

Whereas metropolis insurance policies – together with help for biking — helped scale back the variety of automobiles on Paris streets, Metropolis Corridor mentioned the precise measurement of the automobiles has grown.

Automobile homeowners complain the referendum unfairly singles out SUVs, whereas pedestrian advocacy group 60 Million Pedestrians cautiously welcomed the concept, in accordance with newspaper Le Parisien. Rivals accused Hidalgo of making an attempt to rehabilitate her inexperienced credentials with the referendum thought after a city-funded journey the world over to Tahiti in French Polynesia that drew extensive scorn.

Earlier this 12 months, Parisians voted to ban shared electrical scooters amid concern about accidents and street nuisance.

Getting round Paris in a automotive will change into particularly difficult throughout the Olympics, with additional safety measures and different restrictions in place. Some half 1,000,000 spectators are anticipated alongside metropolis quays for the opening ceremony on the Seine River, and much more for the remainder of the July 26-Aug. 11 occasions.