SUV cracker: First mayor intervenes on parking fees - other cities could soon follow

Tübingen will be the first city in Germany to drastically increase the fees for parking permits.

The municipality could be a pioneer, other cities want to follow.

Tübingen / Munich - In July it became known that Mayor Boris Palmer (The Greens) wanted to make residential parking in Tübingen much more expensive *. According to the plans, owners of large cars such as SUVs should pay 360 euros a year for a parking permit instead of the previous 30 euros. For cars up to the middle class or minivans 180 euros per year are due, for electric cars 120 euros. Recipients of social benefits should each pay half. 

Palmer was able to at least partially assert himself with his demands in the urban climate committee.

Owners of normal vehicles will have to transfer 120 euros to the city treasury for their resident parking permit in Tübingen from next year.

SUV drivers have to dig deeper into their pockets.

For cars with a combustion engine that weigh more than 1800 kilograms and for electric cars that weigh over 2000 kilograms, 180 euros are due.

Socially weak citizens pay half.

The municipal council, which will vote on the fee increase at the end of September, has the final say.

Tübingen increases fees for parking permits: no special treatment for electric cars

The university town is thus the first municipality to use the opportunity, following a change in the Road Traffic Act, to set the fees for the parking space on its own.

So far these were capped at around 30 euros.

"Free parking on public roads will be a thing of the past in Tübingen in the near future," writes Palmer on Facebook.

“32 cents a day for city cars, 50 cents a day for off-road vehicles, parked in the city.

People with low incomes only pay half, i.e. 16 or 25 cents. "

More climate-friendly electric cars are not given preferential treatment, as originally thought by Palmer.

"The state wrote to us that it would not be allowed to favor electric cars," the mayor explained to the committee members, according to the

.

Unfortunately, there is "no political wish to establish such funding".

Tübingen as a pioneer: other cities want to make parking permits more expensive

As a city, Tübingen wants to be climate neutral by 2030.

In order to achieve this goal, local transport is to be massively expanded and made cheaper.

The higher street parking fees are intended to help finance the reduction in bus fares.

According to information from the

, other cities are considering raising the fees for parking permits.

Drivers in Freiburg should pay 360 euros at the beginning of 2020 at the earliest.

The exact modalities are currently being examined.