4x4s Into Paris Won't Go - If Suv Ban Works

French threat to bar off-roaders from capital echoes London debate. Oversized, gas-guzzling 4x4s could possibly be banned from the increasingly traffic-clogged streets of Paris inside the following 18 months following a quality passed from the city's council.
Oversized, gas-guzzling 4x4s could possibly be banned from the increasingly traffic-clogged streets of Paris inside the following 18 months following a quality passed from the city's council.
"Off-road autos are just not suited to towns and you have to wonder why people drive them," Denis Baupin, a senior Green party councillor who tabled the quality, said yesterday.
"They're polluters, they're space-occupiers, they're harmful for pedestrians and other street users. They're a caricature of a vehicle."
Under the quality, SUVs (sports utility vehicles), which are becoming increasingly favorite throughout Europe, could possibly 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 like the Bois de Boulogne and the banks from the river Seine.
The plan, which would need the approval from the city's police chief and is specific to meet stiff opposition from the motoring lobby, follows similar remarks from the mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, who last month described 4x4 autos as "bad for London - completely unnecessary" and named their owners "complete idiots".
The Paris quality states: "These autos emit practically four times as much carbon dioxide as additional environmentally friendly cars. Some consume up to 24 litres of fuel per 100km on an urban visitors cycle. At a time when dwindling oil resources are generating conflicts and value hikes, which is totally irresponsible."
Most 4x4 owners say the height and weight of their vehicle makes them feel safer. Opponents say they are merely high-priced fashion accessories, and harmful to boot. A recent British survey discovered that just one in eight 4x4 drivers had driven their vehicle off-road, and six in 10 never take it out of town.
France caught on late to the vogue for SUVs, mainly simply because Renault, Peugeot and Citroen have not so far offered them. But with luxury carmakers like Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Porsche selling plush leather-upholstered 4x4s, the autos are an increasingly common sight in Paris's wealthier quarters. Sales surged by 11% in France last year and the cars make up nearly 5% from 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" from the most environmentally harmful cars in Europe, and underlined the fact that from the 18 autos on that list, 14 are SUVs. A similar British study from the Environmental Transport Association, based on manufacturers' figures, named the Range Rover 4.6 HSE as the dirtiest car on the road.

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