Parisian voters were called this Sunday to vote for or against the implementation of much more expensive parking for non-resident SUV owners.
Parisians voted Sunday on whether to ban SUVs (Sport Utility Vehicles) from the streets of the French capital by making them much more expensive to park, the latest step in a campaign led by socialist mayor Anne Hidalgo to making the Olympic host city greener and more pedestrian and cyclist friendly.
Anne Hidalgo is seeking voter support for a proposal to triple parking fees for SUV drivers coming from out of town.
In campaign messages on social media, the mayor of Paris claimed that SUVs took up too much space on the narrow streets of Paris, that they were too polluting“threaten our health and our planet”,_ and cause more accidentse the road than small cars.
“The time has come to break with this trend towards ever bigger, taller, wider cars,” she declared. “You have the power to take back our streets.”
The cost for non-residents to park their SUV in the central districts of Paris, in districts 1 to 11, would amount to 18 euros per hour for the first two hours, compared to 6 euros per hour for small cars.
Since then, parking would become more and more punitive. A six-hour stay with an SUV – enough, for example, to see a show and a restaurant – would cost a whopping 225 euros, compared to 75 euros for smaller vehicles.
Outside the heart of the city, in the outlying districts of Paris numbered 12 to 20, a non-resident SUV driver would pay 12 euros per hour for the first two hours, gradually increasing to 150 euros for six hours.
This Sunday’s mini-referendum was open to Parisians registered on the electoral lists. The question they were asked to vote on was: “For or against the creation of a specific rate for the parking of heavy, bulky and polluting individual cars?”
Polling stations were due to close at 7 p.m. and results were expected later this Sunday evening.