Melbourne Council Considers Charging Big Car Drivers Higher Parking Fees

A woman cleans the side of the 2023 Dodge Ram 1500 TRX on display at the 2022 Los Angeles Auto Show in Los Angeles, California on November 17, 2022. (Photo by Frederic J. BROWN / AFP) Photo by FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP via Getty Images

An inner city Melbourne Council is considering charging large and heavy vehicles with higher parking fees.

A notice of motion titled, “Dangers of oversized vehicles,” will be moved at a Yarra City Council meeting on March. 12.

This local government authority represents inner Melbourne suburbs including Richmond, Carlton North, Collingwood, and Fitzroy.

The motion calls for a report to be prepared for a councillor workshop later in the year to make “travelling on Yarra’s streets more equitable and discourage large and heavy vehicles on Yarra’s streets.”

This includes “considering proportionate parking fees based on a vehicle’s size.”

The motion notes the “dangers posed by the increasing size and weight of vehicles on Australian streets, including vehicles like the RAM and Defender.”

Councillor Sophie Wade, from the Greens, claims larger cars have “greater climate impact” and are “more polluting.”

“If SUVs were a country, they would rank as the sixth most polluting in the world,” the motion states (pdf).

The motion also claims that car crashes are the “leading cause of death” for Australian children and kids are “eight times more likely to die when hit by an SUV compared to a normal passenger car.”

However, local advocacy group Yarra Residents Collective raised concerns that local councillors were insensitive to cost of living pressures.

“Good luck getting a reasonably priced tradesperson. How insensitive to the cost of living crisis can these councillors be?” the group said on X.

The Yarra City Council is made up of Greens, independents, and Yarra for All councillors. There are no official Liberal or Labor Party representatives.

Inspired by Paris

Yarra City Council representatives have been inspired by a recent move in Paris to charge more for parking SUVs.

“Paris voted on Feb. 4 to charge 3x higher parking rates for SUVs compared to other vehicles with other French cities including Lyon doing similar,” the Council motion states.

“London Mayor has made comments about following Paris’s lead. France has increased taxes on heavy vehicles.

“Washington D.C., USA, have increased vehicle registration fees on heavier vehicles; and about a dozen other U.S. states charge weight-based registration fees, according to data from the National Conference of State Legislatures.”

In early February, Paris residents voted in a referendum to charge SUVs three times more for parking.

Overall, 54.5 percent voted for the measure, while 45.5 percent voted against it. However, only 5.7 percent of the population turned out to vote in the local referendum.

“We’re proud of having posed an eminently environmental question at a time the environment is presented as the source of all evil,” Mayor Anne Hidalgo said in quotes cited by Reuters.

“It’s a form of resistance here in Paris to this very concerning movement.”