"Other cities will follow": Big trouble ahead for SUV owners
Paris residents have voted to charge SUVs triple the cost of parking compared to standard sized cars in a bid to tackle air pollution and improve safety.
54.6 per cent of residents voted to pass the plan, with the new parking tariffs expected to start in September.
The price increase will apply to on-street parking for vehicles with combustion or hybrid engines weighing more than 1.6 tonnes and electric vehicles weighing over two tonnes.
The change means that the vehicles will pay €18 (A$29.69) an hour for parking in the centre of Paris, up from €6 (A$9.90), and €12 (A$19.79) an hour in the rest of the city, up from €4 (A$6.60).
"Parisians have made a clear choice … other cities will follow,” Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo said.
Experts are onboard with the move and believe the Australia should do the same thing.
Urban access consultant and author of the book Rethinking Parking David Mepham said that the move could help improve safety as: “SUVs are actually some of the most unsafe vehicles on the road for pedestrians with a fatality rate that is significantly higher than other vehicles.”
“The injury and fatality rate should be a concern in highly pedestrianised areas such as city centres.”
In 2022 alone, SUV and light commercial vehicles made up 76.8 per cent of car sales, coming in eighth on the top 10 vehicle sales according to the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries.
With spaces in the cities limited, Mepham added: “If you’ve got a larger car you should expect to pay more for that, you should pay for what you use.”
Standards Australia has recently proposed to increase the size of off-street parking spaces by 20 centimetres in Australia, from 5.4 metres to 5.6 metres, which would make it easier for larger vehicles to park, but would limit car spaces.
Executive director of the Australia Institute, Richard Dennis also said that SUV owners need to face the consequences of owning a larger vehicle.
“If we want to drive much bigger cars, are we going to widen all of our city streets, are we going to have less car parking spaces?” he said.
“Because if we want to drive these cars we need to own the consequences.”
Marion Terrill, an independent transport expert, also agreed that higher parking fees for large vehicles are “absolutely reasonable.”
“If you want more of it you can pay more, it’s the same principle as paying for parking at all," she said.
Image: Getty