As of: February 15, 2024, 9:29 p.m
By: Bettina Menzel
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Residents who park in the center of Koblenz will have to dig deeper into their pockets in the future.
The fees now depend on the dimensions of the vehicle.
Koblenz – In the Rhineland-Palatinate city of Koblenz, parking fees for residents will increase from March 1st.
The increase depends on the size of the cars, as the city announced.
The decision follows the example of Paris, where parking fees for heavy off-road vehicles were also recently increased - but there are also differences to the French regulations.
An SUV is parked on a sidewalk in downtown Düsseldorf (symbolic image).
© Imago/Robert Poorten
Koblenz is raising parking fees for residents: This is how much it will cost to park in the city center in the future
From March 2024, the parking fee charged for residents in Koblenz will be based on the street space used.
Accordingly, the basic annual amount is 23.40 euros.
This must then be multiplied by the length and width of the vehicle in meters.
According to the Koblenz city administration, the basis is the vehicle registration document, without taking into account attachments such as spoilers, exterior mirrors or bicycle racks, as stated in a statement at the beginning of February.
Previously, residents only had to pay 30.70 euros per year.
Residential parking for a Smart “fortwo” will now cost 104.87 euros for one year, which is less than nine euros per month.
“Meanwhile, a VW Tiguan costs 196.23 euros per year,” the city calculates in its statement.
In principle, from March 1st there will be a minimum fee of 100 euros.
When designing the plan, the Koblenz city administration took into account, among other things, a decision from the Federal Administrative Court in Leipzig against the city of Freiburg from June 2023.
That's why Koblenz now uses the actual dimensions of the vehicles for the calculation, it was said.
Paris increases parking fees for visitors, Koblenz for residents
In Paris, from September onwards, parking in the center for heavy SUVs and other weighty vehicles will cost 18 euros for one hour and even 225 euros for six hours.
At a referendum in early February, a majority of participants approved the city's plan to triple parking rates for heavy cars.
Mayor Anne Hidalgo gained support for a further step in the transport transition, which she has been pushing forward for years, even in the face of resistance.
But how would such a survey have turned out in Germany?
Germans generally have a special relationship with their cars, which is also reflected in the emotional debate about a motorway speed limit.
A measure that is common in other countries and saves energy and protects the environment.
But the ADAC's slogan “Free Travel for Free Citizens” from the 1970s still applies today: many people in this country see fast driving as a symbol of individual freedom.
The same apparently applies to the choice of car.
One should “not use parking fees to tell people which car they can drive,” commented André Berghegger from the Association of Cities and Municipalities.
In any case, there is a crucial difference in Koblenz compared to France: here the city increased the fees for residents, not for visitors.
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