As of: January 30, 2024, 6:20 a.m
By: Carmen Mörwald, Kilian Bäuml
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German Environmental Aid is sounding the alarm: increasingly larger cars are flooding our cities.
Their suggestion: higher parking fees for the owners of these vehicles.
Munich – Cars are getting bigger and bigger on German roads.
The Transport & Environment organization shows in a study that newly registered vehicles in Europe have become an average of ten centimeters wider over the past two decades.
Germany plays a leading role in this development.
The German Environmental Aid (DUH) is therefore demanding that SUV owners have to dig significantly deeper into their pockets for parking.
German Environmental Aid is calling for higher parking fees for larger cars.
(Symbolic image) © Christoph Schmidt/dpa
“Monster SUVs”: German environmental aid calls for higher parking fees
Jürgen Resch, Federal Managing Director of the DUH, comments on this as follows: “Our cities are being flooded with more and larger cars.”
He adds: “These monster SUVs are increasingly blocking sidewalks and green spaces and endangering people who are on foot or cycling.” There must be an end to the megalomania with SUVs.
His proposal includes binding size and weight specifications for cars “so that they do not continue to grow beyond city-friendly dimensions.”
Transport & Environment, which deals with sustainable transport, also comes to the conclusion that without regulations from European legislators the trend would continue.
Designation |
Size (according to Transport & Environment) |
|---|---|
Dodge Ram |
208.5 centimeters |
BMW XM |
200.5 centimeters |
BMW X5 |
200.4 centimeters |
BMW X6 |
200.4 centimeters |
BMW X7 |
200 centimeters |
Land Rover Defender |
199.6 centimeters |
Audi Q8 |
199.5 centimeters |
Land Rover Range Rover Sport |
199 centimeters |
VW Touareg |
198.4 centimeters |
Porsche Cayenne |
198.3 centimeters |
Kia EV9 |
198 centimeters |
Volvo EX90 |
196.4 centimeters |
Mercedes Benz EQS |
195.9 centimeters |
Mercedes Benz GLS |
195.6 centimeters |
Megalomania on four wheels?
DUH wants to make SUVs pay
In its press release, the DUH recommends that German cities take Paris as a model.
In early February, the French capital will vote on tripling parking fees for large SUVs.
According to the DUH, current surveys show that almost 60 percent of respondents support this project.
The Paris referendum
As part of the referendum, the Paris city government plans to introduce higher parking fees for combustion and hybrid models weighing 1.6 tonnes or more and for electric models weighing 2 tonnes or more.
These vehicles will be charged 18 euros per hour in the city center and 12 euros per hour in the outskirts.
However, this special rate only applies to visitors.
Parisians as well as craftsmen and nursing services would be exempt from this regulation.
Jürgen Resch explains: “Pioneer cities like Tübingen also prove that comparable regulations can be implemented in Germany: Here, a resident parking permit for particularly large cars costs 50 percent more than the standard fee.”
Boris Palmer, the current mayor, would prefer even higher fees for SUVs.
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In Germany, there is more discussion about creating wider parking spaces than about higher parking fees.
This won't stop anyone from buying an SUV.
Barbara Stoll, director of the Clean Cities Campaign from the European umbrella organization Transport & Environment, emphasizes in the DUH press release: “Monster SUVs are a threat to coexistence in our cities.” If action is not taken now, “people will become more and more precious “Public space has been taken over by ever larger cars – that is not the clean and green future that citizens want.”
The DUH is criticized by the General German Automobile Club (ADAC) for scandalizing the issue.
A spokeswoman said that terms like “monster SUV” and “danger” were inappropriate.
She believes that higher parking fees for vehicles weighing over 1.6 tonnes - as proposed in the Paris referendum - are not a solution.
The editor wrote this article and then used an AI language model for optimization at his own discretion. All information has been carefully checked.
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