Parisians vote in favour of tripling parking costs for SUVs

Lee Duna@lemmy.nz to World News@lemmy.world – 540 points –
Parisians vote in favour of tripling parking costs for SUVs
theguardian.com
157

You are viewing a single comment

There ARE valid reasons for SUVs.

no. not really.

Professionals who need something with storage space for work use vans.

People who need to also transport a wheelchair will use a different car, that is not terribly to get in and out of.

SUVs have 0 reasons to exist, especially outside the US

I'm not really understanding, what makes the US different in this regard?

Have you been to Europe? Have you walked the streets of Paris? The US was built with enough space being everywhere. American roads are wider, cities are mostly built like square-grids of roads built in a time when cats existed whereas European cities emerged in the middle ages. They're tightly packed with little extra space. Sometimes (very rarely) here there are old Cadillacs that can be rented for weddings. Seeing one of these cars on the street is an unreal experience. They're just so huge. They don't fit on the streets here - and those are cars from the 60s or 70s. Everything seems tiny compared to them. From a European perspective it's really stupid to build such large vehicles as driving and parking it is much more complicated when everything is build for small cars. Now that SUVs are becoming popular here too it's just a really annoying. Less parking space per vehicle etc. On cities like Paris - one of the tightest city on Europe this is just annoying. And i haven't even written about fuel consumption. Paris has had huge problems with smog in recent years.

American roads are wider, cities are mostly built like square-grids of roads

And we're paying for that, too.

The Ugly, Dangerous, and Inefficient Stroads found all over the US & Canada - Not Just Bikes

I haven't been to Western Europe but I do live in Singapore with roads that I would say are quite narrow and SUVs aren't that rare here either. So I can't say I really understand entirely but I think I do get what you mean.

the onyl reason they exist in the US is because a regulations loophole.

The EU doesn't have that loophole, so SUVs don't even have that reason to exist. Which you can see, as SUVs are super rare in the EU, while they top all car sales ranks in the US in the last couple years

SUVs are not super rare in the EU (unfortunately). They are pretty common in cities and cause a lot of accidents.

SUVs and crossovers are most popular cars in Europe.

Here’s a French source, coincidentally: https://www.lemonde.fr/en/economy/article/2023/09/14/suvs-now-dominate-european-car-market_6135326_19.html

The US is built more for SUVs than places outside it, so they make a little bit more sense than in places like Paris.

But only a little bit more sense. They're still obnoxious and far too big in the US.

People who need to also transport a wheelchair will use a different car, that is not terribly to get in and out of.

A car most likely wouldn't work for many wheelchair users who drive because they essentially need something they can just get them and their chair lifted directly into, lock their wheels down and start driving. But that doesn't require an SUV. A van would work too. That's what a friend of mine in high school drove.

2 more...