A motion tthat would limit gas-guzzling over-sized SUVs is before the city council, Jon Henley reports from Paris
Oversized, gas-guzzling 4x4s could be banned from the increasingly traffic-clogged streets of Paris within the next 18 months following a resolution passed by the city's council.
"Off-road vehicles are just not suited to towns and you have to wonder why people drive them," said Denis Baupin, a senior Green Party councillor who tabled the resolution. "They're polluters, they're space-occupiers, they're dangerous for pedestrians and other road users. They're a caricature of a car."
Under the resolution, SUVs (sports utility vehicles), which are becoming increasingly popular throughout Europe, could be banned from Paris city centre during peak pollution periods, and their owners denied residents' parking permits. Off-roaders could also be barred from protected areas such as the Bois de Boulogne and the banks of the river Seine.
The plan, which would require the approval of the city's police chief and is certain to meet stiff opposition from the motoring lobby, follows similar remarks by the mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, who last month described 4x4 vehicles as "bad for London - completely unnecessary" and called their owners "complete idiots".
The Paris resolution states: "These vehicles emit almost four times as much carbon dioxide as more environmentally friendly cars. Some consume up to 24 litres of fuel per 100km on an urban traffic cycle. At a time when dwindling oil resources are generating conflicts and price hikes, that is totally irresponsible."
Most 4x4 owners say the height and weight of their car makes them feel safer. Opponents say they are merely expensive fashion accessories, and dangerous to boot.
A recent British survey found that just one in eight 4x4 drivers had driven their car off-road, and six in 10 never take it out of town.
France caught on late to the SUV vogue, mainly because Renault, Peugeot and Citroën have not so far offered them. But, with luxury carmakers such as Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Porsche selling plush leather-upholstered 4x4s, the vehicles are an increasingly common sight in Paris's wealthier quarters. Sales surged by 11 per cent in France last year and the cars make up nearly 5 per cent of the market.
A recent survey by France's Agency for the Environment and Energy Management, Ademe, placed Mercedes' deluxe but bulky G500 off-roader top of a "list of shame" of the most environmentally harmful cars in Europe, and underlined the fact that of the 18 vehicles on that list, 14 are SUVs. A similar British study by the Environmental Transport Association, based on manufacturers' figures, named the Range Rover 4.6 HSE as the dirtiest car on the road.
Councillor Baupin said Paris could not legally ban SUVs outright, but could include a clause in its next transport plan, due to be adopted in 2005, restricting vehicles that did not meet minimum environmental requirements. "Our idea is to limit the circulation of the most polluting vehicles."
Philippe Goujon, a councillor from the opposition centre-right UMP party, accused Baupin of "arbitrary discrimination", saying the resolution "stigmatised a category of vehicles" and would have "no real impact on the environment whatsoever". But Baupin said it was "only logical to let into a city the kind of cars that are adapted for it".
Guardian News Service