A Greens councillor in Sydney is asking for parking charges to be tripled for SUVs, calling them “massive issues, massive polluters, [and] massive killers”.
In a TikTok video with fellow councillor Olivia Barlow, Councillor Matthew Thompson introduced he’ll introduce a movement at immediately’s Metropolis of Sydney council assembly calling for parking charges to be tripled.
This may apply to “probably the most harmful, polluting SUVs… to disincentivise their use on our roads”.
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The present most hourly parking charge in Sydney is $8.20 an hour, so this may drive house owners of affected SUVs to cough up $24.60/hour.
“It’s daring, and the petrol-guzzling nut jobs over at The Each day Telegraph are going to hate it, however different international cities similar to Paris have already tripled parking charges for SUVs to very large success and recognition. It’s time we joined them,” he stated in his TikTok.
“As larger, dirtier vehicles get rolled out onto the highway, the features that we’ve comprised of switching to electrical automobiles are being quickly undone.
“They’re additionally actual harmful, with their dimension and weight which means they’re far more more likely to kill a pedestrian or bike owner in a collision.”
Within the video, the Greens councillor additionally claims {that a} little one is eight occasions extra more likely to be killed if hit by an SUV fairly than a passenger automobile (per a College of Illinois research in 2022) and that if SUVs had been a rustic, they’d be the fifth-largest supply of CO2 emissions on this planet (per the Worldwide Vitality Company final 12 months).
He additionally cited gross sales information displaying that over half – or 57 per cent – of recent automobiles offered final 12 months in Australia had been SUVs.
In his discover of movement, Cr Thompson additionally notes “heavier automobiles improve injury on inner-city roads, thereby rising upkeep prices on roads, with the most important SUVs doing 16 occasions extra injury than small vehicles on Australian roads”.
“The rise of larger, heavier, dirtier SUVs is wiping out the local weather features from the swap to electrical automobiles,” the discover continues, “and the transport sector is projected to develop into the most important supply of emissions by 2030.”
What Cr. Thompson doesn’t point out, nevertheless, is that the time period SUV applies to the whole lot from a hulking Toyota LandCruiser or Nissan Patrol right down to automobiles just like the Jeep Avenger and Mazda CX-3 that are smaller than a typical hatchback.
The councillor doesn’t specify whether or not all SUVs could be impacted by this alteration. Within the discover of movement, he calls on the Chief Govt Officer to “examine and report again on the potential for instituting a Paris-style system imposing greater charges for parking bigger and heavier automobiles similar to SUVs, together with the potential to triple the price of parking for the heaviest, most polluting, harmful and ponderous automobiles”.
Regardless of rising criticism of full-size pickup vehicles, the councillor makes no express point out of utes in both his video or discover of movement.
He additionally says the tripling of parking charges wouldn’t apply to tradespeople or those that want their automobiles for accessibility causes.
Cr Thompson has known as on state and federal governments to additionally assist reverse the pattern in direction of SUVs.
“Till they discover the braveness to push again towards massive producers, it’s on us on the native degree to point out actual management and maintain our streets secure,” he stated.
Final 12 months, Paris tripled parking charges for petrol and hybrid vehicles, in addition to SUVs weighing greater than 1600kg and electrical automobiles (EVs) weighing 2000kg or extra.
Residents are exempted from the elevated charges, as are sure staff similar to emergency providers personnel.
Related penalties towards heavier automobiles have additionally been proposed in Melbourne.
