Paris mayor plans to triple SUV parking tariffs to cut air pollution

-- "Paris mayor plans to triple SUV parking tariffs to cut air pollution"

From the article:

Paris will hold a referendum on 4 February asking residents to vote for or against a specific parking tariff for heavy, large and polluting SUVs. Earlier this year, Paris held a similar vote on whether to ban rented electric scooters and subsequently became the first European capital to ban them. 

If Paris votes yes on parking tariffs, the cost of on-street parking for an SUV or 4x4 car will rise to €18 (£15) an hour in the centre of Paris and €12 an hour in the rest of the city, officials said on Friday. The prices will apply to vehicles weighing more than 1.6 tonnes with a combustion engine or hybrid vehicles, and more than 2 tonnes for electric vehicles. The move will not apply to Paris residents’ parking.

... David Belliard, a deputy mayor of Pacoris for the Green party, said: “SUVs cost between €6,000 to €7,000 more than a standard car and all the studies by car firms show that they are bought by the wealthiest people with high incomes … This measure, if applied, will be directed at the richest people in order to finance the transformation of our public space to adapt to the climate crisis, so it’s a form of social redistribution.” 

He said if a person drove into Paris in an SUV and had to pay €36 for two hours’ parking, this would be an incentive to use another form of transport. “It is about sending a strong signal to those who drive these huge cars – or aspire to – that in the future it’s going to cost you more. We invite them to use other means of transport, there are alternatives.”

A Ford F-350 truck can be almost as wide as two DC rowhouses.

DC.  22 years ago, with the election of Anthony Williams as mayor of DC, there was a reinvigoration of the urban planning function in the city.  The first big initiative was to do "neighborhood plans" for each neighborhood area.  I don't remember the exact definition.  And my neighborhood was the first.

While lauded in planning circles, the initiative was pretty circumscribed, focused on directing how agencies spent their monies, but with no changes to how agencies budgeted and planned.

Anyway, someone, not me, suggested changing the residential parking permit system to charge more for larger vehicles.  Like SUVs.

It's still not done, although I think the car registration fee in DC does a form of this.

But not paid for parking (parking meters).

US car culture is complemented by a weak transit system.  It's hard to do something like this in the US, because our mobility system is centered around the car.  

For example, Paris has an amazing transit system which continues to expand ("Paris is getting a whole new Metro network. And it’s huge," CNN).  The amount of track miles that is being added to the existing system (800km) is just a bit smaller than the total track of the DC area Metrorail system, with 68 new stations being added, which is not quite 70% of the total number of existing Metrorail stations.

In most US cities, transit is an afterthought, an inefficient way to get around, and it is not constantly expanding and improving.