‘Pay for what you use’: SUV parking warning

A major global city has made a huge call on parking fees and experts believe Australian cities should also make SUV owners “own the consequences”.

A major global city has made a huge call on SUV parking and experts believe Australian cities should also make SUV owners “own the consequences”.

A major global city has made a huge call on parking and experts believe Australian cities should also make SUV owners “own the consequences”.

Earlier this month, residents of Paris voted to charge SUVs triple the cost of parking compared to standard sized cars in a bid to tackle air pollution and improve safety, with 54.6 per cent of residents voting to pass the plan.

The new parking tariffs are expected to start in September, when the cost of on-street parking for an SUV or 4X4 will be triple that paid by standard sized cars.

The price increases will apply to vehicles with combustion or hybrid engines weighing more than 1.6 tonnes and electric vehicles weighing more than two tonnes.

Such vehicles will pay €18 (A$29.69) an hour for parking in the centre of Paris, up from €6 (A$9.90), and €12 (A$19.79) an hour in the rest of the city, up from €4 (A$6.60).

“Parisians have made a clear choice … other cities will follow,” said Paris mayor, Anne Hidalgo.

This large SUV will soon have to pay triple to park in Paris.

David Mepham, an urban access consultant and author of the book Rethinking Parking, told news.com.au he can see merit in the Paris move.

“Other cities are paying very close attention to this,” he said.

“SUVs are actually some of the most unsafe vehicles on the road for pedestrians with a fatality rate that is significantly higher than other vehicles.”

“The injury and fatality rate should be a concern in highly pedestrianised areas such as city centres.”

The decision in Paris comes as Standards Australia is proposing to increase the length of off-street parking spaces by 20 centimetres in Australia, from 5.4 metres to 5.6 metres.

The standard size of car spaces on streets and in parking lots is currently 5.4 metres long and 2.4 metres to 2.6 metres wide, enough to fit passenger vehicles and light commercial vehicles, including utes.

A 2023 model Toyota HiLux can squeeze into a current standard carpark with 7.5 centimetres to spare, lengthwise, but a RAM 1500 overhangs by 43 centimetres.

In a 2.4-metre wide carpark, a RAM overhangs on width, too.

Standards Australia is proposing increasing parking spaces by 20cm to accommodate growing vehicle sizes.

Australians have slowly been moving away from passenger vehicles and sedans toward SUVs, utes – which have been the highest-seller each year since 2016 – and now pick-up trucks.

SUVs and light commercial vehicles made up 76.8 per cent of car sales in 2022, and comprise eight of the top 10 vehicles, according to the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries.

With space in cities at a premium, Dr Mepham said: “If you’ve got a larger car you should expect to pay more for that, you should pay for what you use.”

A change to the size of a standard car park may make it easier for larger vehicles to park, but it would also reduce the number of available car parking spaces overall.

Richard Denniss, executive director of the Australia Institute said Australians needed to face the consequences of their decision to drive larger vehicles.

“If we want to drive much bigger cars, are we going to widen all of our city streets, are we going to have less car parking spaces?” he told news.com.au.

“Because if we want to drive these cars we need to own the consequences.”

He said charging higher parking rates for large vehicles and offering dedicated car parking spaces for small cars would “make a lot of sense”.

Mr Denniss said he had no doubt ute and SUV owners would be enraged by the suggestion of higher parking fees because “in Australia we’ve turned car choice into a culture war”.

A growing number of Australian cars no longer fit standard car spaces. Picture: Twitter/X (amy_jelacic)

Marion Terrill, an independent transport expert, also agrees that higher parking fees for large vehicles are “absolutely reasonable.”

“Essentially this is public space, they’re taking up public space in environments where there’s limited public space,” she told news.com.au.

“If you want more of it you can pay more, it’s the same principle as paying for parking at all.”

Ms Terrill said just as there are dedicated spaces for parents with prams, the disabled community, electric vehicles and carshare vehicles, cities could also consider offering a limited number of spaces for larger vehicles, rather than overhauling the size of all spaces.

-with Georgina Noack.