Parisians vote to hit SUVs with eye-popping parking costs in latest green drive before Olympics

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Parisians voted on February 4 to muscle SUVs off the French capital’s streets by making them much more expensive to park starting next September, the latest leg in a drive-by Socialist Mayor Anne Hidalgo to make the host city for this year’s Olympic Games greener and friendlier for pedestrians and cyclists. More than 54% of the votes cast in the low-turnout election supported the measure to triple parking fees for large SUV drivers from out of town to 18 euros ($19.50) per hour in the city’s center, according to official results from City Hall. Only 5.7% of the 1.3 million eligible voters cast ballots at the 39 voting stations around the city. In get-out-the-vote posts on social media, Hidalgo argued that SUVs take up too much space on narrow Parisian streets, are too polluting, “threaten our health and our planet,” and cause more traffic accidents than smaller cars. The additional fees will come into force from September 1, Hidalgo said. “The time has come to break with this tendency for cars that are always bigger, taller, wider,” she said. “You have the power to take back ownership of our streets.” The cost for non-residents to park SUVs in Paris’ central districts, in the arrondissements numbered 1 through 11, would soar to 18 euros ($19.5) per hour for the first two hours, compared to 6 euros per hour for smaller cars. After that, parking would become increasingly punitive. A six-hour stay with an SUV — enough, say, to take in a show and a restaurant — would cost a whopping 225 euros ($243), compared to 75 euros for smaller vehicles. Away from the heart of the city, in Paris’ outer arrondissements numbered 12 through 20, an out-of-town SUV driver would pay 12 euros per hour for the first two hours, progressively rising to 150 euros for six hours. The mini-referendum was open to Parisians registered to vote. The question they were asked was: “For or against the creation of a specific rate for the parking of heavy, bulky, polluting individual cars?” This article was provided by The Associated Press.