Six in 10 back tripling city parking charges for SUVs, Startline finds

Research conducted by Startline Motor Finance has found that six in 10 drivers support the tripling of city parking charges for SUVs, similarly to a scheme introduced in Paris last year.

41% of respondents said that SUVs cause unnecessary congestion and 31% said that they excessively contribute to air pollution.

Last year, Paris tripled parking charges for SUVs weighing over 1,600kg, or over 2,000kg for electric vehicles (EVs).

The extra charges only apply to visitors, not residents or professionals, yet newspaper Le Parisien reported that it cut the numbers of SUVs using surface parking by two-thirds.

28% of respondents to Startline’s survey said that all cars should be treated the same, 13% said that motorists should be free to enter cities regardless of what kind of car they drive and 10% said that SUVs are being unfairly targeted.

One sixth (17%) said that SUVs pose a danger to pedestrians.

Paul Burgess, CEO at Startline Motor Finance, said: “Our findings show there is a pretty strong majority for people who want to discourage driving big SUVs in their cities because of their impact on the environment, traffic and pedestrian safety – and would like to see action taken that actively discourages their owners from bringing them into these areas.

“We have asked other questions about SUVs in our research recently and it does appear there are general concerns about them.