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Hanover Mayor Belit Onay: “The trend towards more and more larger and heavier cars continues.”
Photo: IMAGO/dts news agency
Hanover's mayor Belit Onay (Greens) has advocated making parking for sports off-road vehicles (SUVs) more expensive. “The trend towards more and more larger and heavier cars continues,” he told the “Tagesspiegel”. “I therefore have great sympathy for a price scale for parking fees based on the length of the vehicles.”
The background is a citizen survey in Paris on Sunday. There, residents can decide whether parking fees in public parking spaces for heavy SUVs should be tripled. Just one hour of parking in the center would cost 18 euros instead of the usual six euros, and in the outskirts twelve euros instead of four euros.
Onay said: "The referendum shows once again that the debate must be held about the limited public space and more appropriate pricing for parking." All major European cities face this challenge. He is very excited about the result.
Also with a view to Paris, the German Environmental Aid (DUH) recently called on all German cities to set higher parking fees for ever larger SUVs. »These monster SUVs are increasingly blocking sidewalks and green spaces and endangering people who are traveling on foot or by bike. The megalomania in SUVs must be stopped," said DUH Federal Managing Director Jürgen Resch.