The socialist mayor of Paris is no fan of the SUV. Photo / File
The socialist mayor of Paris is no fan of the SUV. Photo / File
Anne Hidalgo, the socialist mayor of Paris, has backed calls to ban SUVs from the city, as she warned the heavy vehicles could become “weapons” against other citizens.
The city council adopted a motion on Friday that calls on the Government to bar sports utility vehicles (SUVs) from within Paris’ perimeter, along with any marketing material that promotes their use.
Ian Brossat, a communist senator for Paris, proposed a draft law earlier this month that would allow local councillors to expel SUVs from the city.
The government of Emmanuel Macron would need to grant the council the power to do so, and Hidalgo has urged it to approve the measure as she continues a decade-long road safety campaign.
It came in response to the death of Paul Varry, a 27-year-old cyclist who was hit by an SUV in the city centre following an alleged road rage incident last month. The driver of the Mercedes has since been charged with murder.
Varry’s death sparked a major public debate about the sharing of public spaces, with the rapid expansion of bike lanes over the last few years.
“Paul was murdered,” Hidalgo said earlier in the week before council members observed a minute of silence for him. “The car kills – it is a weapon when used in this way.”
The city council said SUVs, which account for 25% of private vehicles in the capital, were responsible for 10% more accidents than other vehicles and were statistically more fatal for the victims they hit.
Brossat said there needed to be a “wake-up call” regarding the road violence plaguing the city and tabled a bill in the senate that would allow local councillors to ban the heaviest vehicles from city streets.
In Paris, more than half of journeys are made on foot, 30% by public transport, 11% by bike and 4% by car.
Anne Hidalgo has urged Emmanuel Macron’s government to approve the SUV ban as she continues a decade-long road safety campaign. Photo / Getty Images
“Motorists kill,” added Emmanuelle Pierre-Marie, the mayor of the 12th arrondissement of Paris, who was attacked by a motorcyclist while riding her bike last summer.
“The public space has become the daily theatre of this danger exacerbated by increasingly massive motorised vehicles,” she said. “We must go even further to protect Parisians.”
But the opposition was quick to criticise the proposal, blaming road violence on the mayor’s “chaotic” urban planning.
“The city of Paris has an immense responsibility for these serious accidents,” Aurelie Pirillo, a republican councillor, said.
“Why are there so many of them? Because it has become anarchy in Paris. This is where your chaotic management of mobility leads.”
David Alphand, another republican, accused the mayor of “exploiting” Varry’s death in order to advance her “political agenda”.
The proposal is the mayor’s latest move in what has been branded her “war on motorists”.
This month a ban was put in place on all vehicles driving through 1.8 square miles of central Paris unless the driver had specific business there. Earlier this year, the city raised the price of parking for those driving SUVs into the capital.
