Paris to ban SUVs: report

[kpete]

Source: CarAdvice

Paris to ban SUVs: report
By Karl Peskett | December 29th, 2010



If you’re an SUV owner and you’re living in France, it’s likely you soon won’t be able to enter into the city of Paris. The mayor’s office hinted this week that different types of vehicles may be banned from the city, including old diesel vehicles, and SUVs.

Denis Baupin, a Parisian environmental official, told RTL radio anyone who had an SUV should “sell it and buy a vehicle that’s compatible with city life. I’m sorry, but having a sport utility vehicle in a city makes no sense.”

Test restrictions are set to begin late next year, giving SUV-loving Parisians a short amount of time to get out of what Baupin calls “gas-guzzlers”.

Along with Paris, Lyon, Grenoble and Aix-en-Provence are also considering the restrictions. Penalties have not yet been decided, but the cities may model their restrictions on London’s low emission zones.

Read more: http://www.caradvice.com.au/96468/paris-to-ban-suvs-report/

[HelenWheels]

1. Great plan, Paris nt

[Ruperto31]

33. There are very few SUVs in France.

Last year, I drove all over the country and saw at most five SUVs. One reason: The streets are too narrow.

[marmar]

2. Paris, Je t'aime......

:loveya: ......for more reasons that could ever be covered in one post.

[Arctic Dave]

3. Good. They faster the world decommisions these relics the better.

[appal_jack]

36. What about those of us who need them?

I own a Toyota RAV 4, one of the smallest & most efficient 4wd SUVs available: 24 mpg combined driving. Is it excessive? Well, today, I couldn't make it all the way up my rural mountain drive way. I will need to plow with my 4-wheeler (I suppose that you would like to ban those too?) before I can get my 4wd SUV up to my front door.

Or would you prefer to carry my groceries up the hill for me? Volunteer sherpas are welcome!

Yes, I know, you'll say "Live somewhere else!" But this is where I can afford to farm organically. The flatter land is more expensive.

Still want to ban all SUV's?

-otus

[Arctic Dave]

37. I don't think a RAV even qualifies as an SUV.

I would think that would be in the compact car category.

[appal_jack]

45. As small as a RAV is by American standards,

As small as a RAV is by American standards,it is huge by European ones. I am quite certain that the proposed ban referenced in the op would include RAVs and other RAV-sized compact SUV's.

btw, got my driveway plowed, and am about to try and get the RAV up the remaining ice/snow/gravel. Wish me luck,

:hi:

-app

[kestrel91316]

4. I love Paris even MORE now.

[dixiegrrrrl]

5. I am curious as to how well SUV drove in NYC snow this year.

That is always the excuse people give me for owning one ( tho I must say, they DO sound faintly defensive now).

[FailureToCommunicate]

7. I'm guessing the best car for snow is not an SUV. 4 wheel drive Subaru seems

to be the car everyone drives in northern New England, unless you're driving a Snow Cat. We drove a 4 wheel drive Toyota thru the multiple storms of 1994 often passing stuck SUVs...

[DCKit]

10. Subarus are also popular in the mountains of Western VA.

Not something I expected to see on the roads out there, but there they were.

[Davis_X_Machina]

11. Up heah...

..it's Subes, Saabs and fifteen-year old Volvos.

[DonCoquixote]

6. When I was in New Orleans

I often took Taxi rides. Now, most taxis in the USA tend to be Chevrolet or Ford Crown Victoria, not small cars, but not large either. They are durable enough to run a lot, large enough so that they can handle multiple passengers with baggage, yet still small enough with a V-six engine that MPG is reasonable, after all, you do not want to waste your profit on gas.

However, even theses cars can have problems in places like the French Quarter, which was not built for them. I can imagine the situation in Paris must be similar.

One ride I went on showed the drama that can happen when an SUV is going in a city. I was in a taxi cab (Chevy caprice) with one of the real psycho cabdrivers that every city worth it's salt has. We were on the corner of Royal street (an old, narrow French style street) and Canal. We got cut off by a HUGE SUV from out of state. This set the cabbie into a cussing fit that was half creole, half english, and all fury. He refuses to get cut of, especially as if we were cut off again, we might have ended up getting knocked into the sidewalks.

It did not help that the SUV was driving aggressively, at one point, the creep nearly ran over one of the mule-driven carriages used on tour. I half expected to see either a Mule's head or a dead tourist on the hood! My cabbie sped up, and with skill that rivals anything in either formula one or nascar, he cut the SUV off! Once we were on Canal Street, my cabbie said. "Ya know, dey oughta ban dem SUV's in de french Quawta!, dat's de third time dat happened dis week!"

[bbinacan]

8. And if you need an SUV for work,

you're fucked.

[MrScorpio]

9. I wonder if that covers step vans and station wagons

Seems very specific of them

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

12. guess that means the mayor and the

president will not cruise around in them either?

[AnneD]

13. The streets were built pre auto......

so narrow you have to butter the sides of your car to get through. And your side mirrors better collapse. Parisian bus drivers have to be the best at estimating clearance and navigating of any human I know. SUV's should be banned unless they are for delivery.

SUV's are good here in Houston because of their high clearance. We get a bit of flash flooding and they can be a real lifesaver. I used mine in the mountains of New Mexico esp. for roads that had not been plowed. SUV's and trucks were the vehicles of choice-SUV's were preferred because you could haul feed and kids.

[KansDem]

14. I never understood why they were built in the first place...

After the 1970s oil embargo by Bush's business partners and family friends, I saw a Newsweek cover with a drawing of a small car and the caption, "Detroit Thinks Small." I thought, "Good!"

So Detroit built its obligatory "small cars" for awhile, then starting creeping back up to larger and larger cars, beginning with the minivan, then the SUV, then the MONSTER SUV, followed by the MONSTER pickup trucks and finally, the Hummer.

Each time a "new" (larger) line came out I thought, "WHAT? Are we crazy? What about gasoline prices?," but Detroit kept building them. Now we are back to where we were prior to the 1970s, only moreso...

Congratulations to the French for their logic and reasoning...

[PSPS]

15. It's all about the $$$

SUV's are less expensive to produce compared to passenger cars thanks to big loopholes in the CAFE rules. Plus there's the IRS loophole that gives generous writeoff for cars over a certain weight. That's why Detroit promotes them so much. And it's easy to get people to buy anything if it's popularized in the media (product placement.) Think cigarettes and even diamonds (diamonds weren't in much demand as jewelry at all until the 1930's when DeBeers decided to provide diamonds to movie studios and starlets in an attempt to popularize them.) I remember reading that sales of the Ford Bronco shot up like a rocket immediately after O.J.'s "slow pursuit" was televised to the nation. (Cowlings was driving a Ford Bronco.)

[defendandprotect]

22. Call me suspicious, but think the advent of the SUV's also had something to do

with governments permitting trucks onto local roads --

we still don't have them on the Garden State Parkway here in NJ -- but

they are on our local roads -- very local town roads!!

They keep permitting them to get longer and heaviere and allowing more and

more on the roadways/highways.

We need to get them off of our local roads. Not safe no matter what you're driving

but presume that people in SUV's feel they are more protected in them.

It's like guns -- people buy guns essentially to protect themselves from other

people with guns!!

[Pavulon]

28. Better jump on that S class and 7 Series. Not a single car left in Greenwich CT, bothare the SAME

as an F150. Try again, you failed.

[krispos42]

18. It's pretty simple... they are very flexible vehicles.

Big enough for a family to take long trips comfortably, with luggage a-plenty. 4-wheel drive for slippery conditions such as snow and mud, especially with hills involved. The station-wagon design and folding seats allow room to carry large parcels, furniture, or building supplies such as plywood and sheetrock. And the beefy powerplant and truck chassis allow towing fairly heavy loads, such as campers, boats, utility trailers, and even other vehicles.

So they had that going for them. I think many families that could afford it picked up an SUV supplement a "regular" car, a sedan or coupe.

A 1995 Ford Taurus wagon with the base 3.0L V-6 averaged 21mpg, the bigger 3.8L V-6 averaged 19mpg, and the 1995 Ford Explorer 4WD got 15mpg.

So for roughly 33% more fuel burned per year, a person got a much more versatile and capable vehicle. If you drove 15,000 miles a year, the 3.0L Taurus would burn $893 in gas, the 3.8L would burn $987, and the Explorer would burn $1,250. (Assume gas was $1.25 a gallon in 1995).

A lot of people figured that an extra dollar a day in fuel costs was worth it for the extra room and extra capability.

The parents of the 90's were looking for something cooler and hipper than the minivan for family hauling. And when you consider that a 1995 Dodge Grand Caravan with either the 3.3L or 3.8L engine only got 17mpg, the extra $120 a year in gas for the Explorer was typically regarded as money well spent.

[defendandprotect]

23. Gas is about more than the dollar costs of it -- these SUV's contribute more to Global Warming ....

and are harder on our roadways -- bridges, etal --



MY WISHES FOR PEACE AND LOVE IN THE NEW YEAR FOR ALL !!

[krispos42]

30. Well, that's a small part of it

They'll burn more gas over their lifetime for the same miles driven. And of course they're a bit larger and contain more materials than a family sedan or minivan. But the difference wasn't that much.

Of course, 15 years later the difference is a bit more... a Ford Fusion with the I-4 engine gets significantly better gas mileage AND has significantly more power than a 1995 Taurus while being similar in size and weight. And my dad's 2006 Pathfinder gets about 15 miles per gallon... same as the old Explorer, although with a lot more power.

:shrug:

NAFTA and the WTO has contributed far more to global warming than SUVs... all those giant freighters plying the routes between the US and the Far East burn the absolute cheapest bunker oil they can find to fire their boilers, and they have absolutely no pollution controls in them. Those ships basically burn what the oil refineries scrape out of the bottom of their tanks. It's full of all kinds of noxious stuff like sulfur, and it's burned without a thought towards pollution control. And thanks to globalization, stuff that should have been made here was instead being shipped here by one of those vessels, spewing pollution the entire 8,000 mile journey.

Yeah, I think the SUV market needs modifying, but the car makers have responded to increased customer demand by making car-based crossover vehicles that offer features and benefits similar to a traditional SUV but in a lighter, more fuel-efficient package that is comparable to a minivan.

[defendandprotect]

32. Global Warming isn't a "small" problem ... and SUV's/cars are an immense part of it --

[SquireJons]

40. It's not that simple

Yes, vehicles have a carbon footprint and there is additional cost to infrastructure, but there are hidden costs in the "green" alternatives. I'm all for making cars with better gas mileage, but not every supposed solution to global warming is what it appears. Take ethanol for example. On the surface it seems like a good idea, but in addition to turning a food source into an energy commodity, it also is environmentally less friendly than oil. That's because it has a lower combustion point, meaning that it takes more fuel to produce the same amount of work. This in turn means more pollutants in the atmosphere (not to mention more gallons sold, meaning more profit for the producers). In addition, E10 (10% ethanol) damages engines and the newly proposed E15 will do even more damage to cars and the environment.

As for the wear and tear on the roads and bridges, I doubt that's much of a concern. If the construction standards are written to handle 75,000 lb. tractor-trailers, then a puny 4,000 lb car isn't going to do anything worse than a 2,000 lb car.

[nyy1998]

16. I hate the city of Paris, but I give them props, more major cities should do this

or make it more difficult for ppl to buy SUV. Imagine NYC or London without SUV!

[JDPriestly]

17. When we lived in Paris many years ago, we had a tiny car and

we could not find a parking spot way back then. So I can understand why they are banning SUVs. There is no place to park an SUV. They take parking space away from other cars. This makes sense in Paris. It does not make sense in some small town in Northern Montana.

[defendandprotect]

24. Plus, walking, enjoying the city -- fresher air -- staying healthier are all benefits ....

we have huge problems in America with trucks being permitted onto our

local/town roads -- and highways.

We recently had a 16 wheeler topple over in one of our local streets --

tried to go under an underpass that was too low for it -- but fortunately

no one was hurt. Just happened that there wasn't a car on either side of it.

Could have been.



MY WISHES FOR PEACE AND LOVE IN THE NEW YEAR FOR ALL !!

[Pavulon]

19. Bet a 911Turbo or Ferrari Enzo is still allowed.

stupid political move. Some SUV's get better mileage than either of those vehicles.

[quakerboy]

42. How many Ferrari Enzo's

are there vs how many SUV's. Which is more likely to be around in enough numbers to cause a problem?

In the mean time, how much room does it take to park an Enzo vs an SUV?

[harvey007]

20. Smart Cars!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZHPzNgsI14&feature=related

[Pavulon]

25. I used to have a old caprice. I would just push peoples cars back

when they did that. worked like a champ.

[awoke_in_2003]

29. or the 1978

Ford LTD 4 door- thing was a good 18 ft long.

[defendandprotect]

26. Love them ...

but none of them are automatic --

otherwise I'd buy one.

[Pavulon]

27. Here is footage of an little C class and a Smart Car. This would be a fatality accident.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L4k0FWvGoSM

Make that an S class or 7 series and you are going to die for sure. They are special use vehicles.

[defendandprotect]

21. Wow -- how sane can you get.... ???? We need TRUCKS taken off our roadways ....

they're setting us up for "all the trucks all the time" at this point --

and making them ever larger -- heavier and longer -- and more of them!!

[xchrom]

31. another good reason to love paris. awesome.

it's hard enough to get around paris -- and parking?!? -- get rid of 'em.

[femrap]

34. I should have been born in France....

they still have common sense. We're just a 3rd world nation w/ a streak of sadism down its back.

[bullwinkle428]

35. How practical could they ever have been there, when you've got

streets that are like 8' wide in places?

[SquireJons]

38. The Midle Way

My view on SUV's is the same as my view on almost everything else; it depends. For most drivers, an SUV is excessive and wasteful. I know, because I've driven a Isuzu Trooper for the last 10 years. But this month I purchased a 2003 Ford ZX2 that gets over 30 mpg, and I'm much happier now. Here's the rub... when I purchased the Trooper new, I absolutely needed it. I had my own business, and that means not calling in just because it's snowing. I also regularly hit the mountains and Hatteras beach which requires a four wheel drive vehicle. In addition, I needed to transport a 70 lbs dog, large art work, and a few years later, a girlfriend, three kids, and two dogs. That isn't going to happen in my ZX2, so my point is, that sometimes an SUV is useful. And even with my commuter car, I will be keeping the Trooper for special occasions.

As for Paris, I've been there and I can assure you that there are virtually no SUV's in Paris. The average size car in Paris makes a Mini Cooper look like a Cadillac. I saw a guy get out of a car in Paris, and he was actually bigger than the car itself. Heck, kids battery cars in this country are bigger than real cars in Paris. I can reliably say that this new regulation will have zero impact on Paris or any of the other cities mentioned in the article. I can also reliably say that Americans would never choose to drive the kind of vehicles that the French drive. A bicycle provides more safety.

[fascisthunter]

39. GOOD!

[GreatCaesarsGhost]

41. Coup de gas

[Name removed]

43. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[grahamhgreen]

44. Yay! I hate those things unless needed for work. The tax breAks for SUV's sucks.