Paris is throwing some serious muscle into winning the green transportation race and they’re now even considering banning high polluting vehicles from their streets. With their already successful Velib bike sharing program and their soon to launch electric car share program and their world class metro, this addition of tough restrictions on heavy polluters like SUVs and old diesel vehicles is yet another awesome way that the city of lights is making its way to a low emissions future.
Denis Baupin, an environmental official in the mayor’s office, told RTL Radio that if you’re a Parisian with a gas guzzler, you should “sell it and buy a vehicle that’s compatible with city life. I’m sorry, but having a sport utility vehicle in a city makes no sense.” We have to agree with him on that one. SUVs make it hard to get around the tight corners of any city — never mind Paris’ tiny winding cobblestone streets — and are a nightmare to park. In addition, in cities with pollution problems like Paris — and LA, Tehran and Beijing — they add significantly more to the problem than lil’ autos like the Smart Car or better yet a shiny EV.
The proposed restrictions would likely come in the form of emissions testing and would effect SUVs and old diesel cars most. Though at the moment there is no official plan in place, and nothing has been said about penalties, Baupin seems to be sending a pretty serious message to owners of high-polluting vehicles — Paris doesn’t want your smog.
Via Autoblog Green
Seems like a little shallow, considering the V8 (and up) engines in many Benz and BMW’s are just as wasteful. It’s a refreshing start though.
Leave it to the French. Not looking for data. Many SUV’s are now built on car platforms and powered now by 4 or 6 cylinder engines. Those V-8,V-10 sedans pollute just as much and use far more fuel as say a small SUV. All I see is stigmatization and suppression of peoples freedom. Isn’t liberty a french word? The fact is Paris has lost over 2/3rds of its population in recent decades, they now live in the metro area or surrounding suburbs. Perhaps a lot of them may own an SUV, but seldom drive through the inner city for any reason as their jobs and places they like to go are often outside the urban core. So banning them is not going to have much of an affect on traffic mitigation. The people that live in the dense inner city now are either 1st, 2nd, 3rd generation immigrants and France’s yuppie equivalent. While congestion charging is an okay idea, it’s only going to make it difficult for people who really need to drive through, those who may own a business which requires trucks or large vehicles.
V8 sedan matches a V6 SUV in terms of fuel economy on average
Same with a.V6 sedan and a 4 cyl small suv. They are view blocking top heavy pigs and id be glad to see then go.