Are city cars going to undergo a forced slimming treatment? This is what the senator from Paris, Ian Brossat, wants, who intends to table, in the coming days, a bill aimed at giving the power to mayors of large cities to ban cars above a certain weight. A sadly current subject after the death in October of a cyclist killed by an SUV driver in Paris.
To summarize, no more SUVs in big cities. “For a decade, our cars have gained 1 cm every two years and 10 kg per year. In 1996, their average width was 1.68 m, while in 2016, it increased to 1.78 m, and their weight has increased by 40% in twenty years” explains the communist senator in his bill.
A massification of large vehicles
An evolution which is likely to continue given the latest models presented by manufacturers. Indeed, SUVs now dominate the market (41% of sales in France in 2023) and represent more than one in two new vehicles purchased in certain territories (57% in Paris).
However for Ian Brossat, “the rapid massification of large vehicles as well as this surge in the weight and sizes of vehicles goes against the objectives of reducing carbon emissions, limiting particles due to fuel and braking , road safety and mobility accessibility for the working classes”.
According to the International Energy Agency, an electric SUV produces a 70% higher carbon footprint than a standard electric car and consumes up to five times more critical metals during manufacturing than an electric car. At the same time, thermal SUVs, for their part, consume on average 20% more fuel than a conventional vehicle. “This contradicts our climate objectives, especially since SUVs have become the second source of increase in CO2 emissions, after air travel,” he explains.
SUVs and bikes don't mix
An increase in weight and size for vehicles which is all the more nonsense according to the senator since “the two departments which buy the most SUVs are Hauts-de-Seine and Paris. However, it does not seem to me that our roads require such equipment. It’s absurd,” he explains to 20 Minutes.
This is all the more nonsense since the increase in sales of large vehicles is accompanied by an increase in the use of bicycles in the city. A cocktail which can prove dramatic in the event of an accident since due to their weight, “accidents involving SUVs are often more serious” which does not help to bring together the different modes of transport.
Cars grow, streets don't
“It is also a problem of occupation and sharing of urban space. These vehicles, larger than conventional cars, accentuate parking difficulties and increase congestion in already limited areas, thus complicating the sharing of public roads between all users,” adds Ian Brossat.
In his argument, the former Parisian elected official also specifies that the increase in sales of SUVs, often very expensive and most often purchased by people with greater means, de facto increases prices on the second-hand market, penalizing the most popular classes.
A wish submitted to the Council of Paris
“The objective here is not to completely ban the use of SUVs in the city, but to give local elected officials the means to make this decision by zone if necessary and if they have alternatives such as sufficient public transport », Recalls Ian Brossat who already thinks he can count on cities like Lyon or Bordeaux to apply such provisions if they existed.
If he does not control the parliamentary agenda, the senator is already announcing that a wish in support of this proposal will be tabled at the next Paris Council on November 19.
