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Paris To Test Banning SUVs In the City
thecarchik writes "Paris may be the first city to experiment with such a policy. Next year, it will begin to test restrictions on vehicles that emit more than a certain amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) per kilometer — the measure of a car's contribution to greenhouse gases. An official within the Parisian mayor's office, Denis Baupin, identified older diesel-engined cars and sport-utility vehicles as specific targets of the emissions limit. Residents and travelers have responded by buying thousands of electric cars, including the low-speed fiberglass G-Wiz — despite major safety concerns with the vehicle."
Heavy smug clouds are developing over Paris. Seriously though, isn't the pollution just move upstream when it comes to electric cars? Or have there been recent improvements in that regard?
... will producing all those additional 'city cars' people will need to buy consume?
Have gnu, will travel.
The "zOMG co2!" thing should get people riled up(at least here across the atlantic); but I suspect that this is(in the guise of being 'green'); basically just the same arrangement.
There are more and less efficient engine designs and(over short distances, if you don't count upstream emissions) even a main battle tank could emit zero co2 if it packed enough batteries; but, on average, this is basically going to target old cars(more likely to be noisy, lax on assorted noxious emissions) and large cars(more metal rolling, more energy needed. Period.)
It is an interesting quirk of French politics that you would bring up the co2 thing to make such a ban more palatable; but the effects of this proposal seem pretty much identical to most other schemes aimed at making dense cities more pleasant and less congested: all of them target big, loud, and noxious vehicles, through a mixture of either Orwellian cameras(Hi London!), landscaping changes aimed at 'pedestrianizing' the city, or just plain legal fiat backed by traffic cops.
In general, I get the impression that(at least among city dwellers, suburbanites commuting in are rather the target) such schemes are reasonably popular. Above a certain density, you just get smog-huffing gridlock that tends to grind out the vibrant street-level life of a city. Culling the more obnoxious vehicles, and replacing them with some mixture of better walkability, public transit, and smaller vehicles(sometimes as part of zipcar-like arrangements), tends to bring some of the charm back, and isn't too inconvenient in very high density areas. Trying to be the suburbs, when you are 10x or more as dense, just doesn't scale very well. Cities reacting against this trend are fairly common, though generally not by hitting co2 related metrics...
The safety issue really concerns me. I don't want people being forced by legislation to buy smaller, weaker cars, for city driving, because most people can only afford one car so they'll also be taking those same small, weak cars out on fast roads.
I'm a news photographer and I often attend accident scenes. As a rule, whenever there is an SUV involved, the occupants of the SUV survive and the occupants of the car _all_ die.
Renault Megane vs Range Rover. Both people in the Megane killed. Minor injuries in the Range Rover.
http://www.meejahor.com/wp-content/uploads/FatalcollisiononB9006CantraywoodtoCroyro_A156/FatalcollisionB9006CantraywoodtoCroyroad2.jpg
Vauxhall Corsa vs Mitsubishi Shogun. Both people in the Corsa killed. Injuries in the Shogun.
http://www.meejahor.com/wp-content/uploads/Newspaperphotosfromthelastfewmonths_CD67/A9Dalwhinniefatalcollision5of8.jpg
Vauxhall Astra vs Mitsubishi Shogun. All three people in the Astra killed. Minor injuries in the Shogun.
http://www.meejahor.com/wp-content/uploads/818q3025.jpg
As you and many others perhaps have falsely presumed, this may be some kind of attack on SUV's or American culture. That is just bad journalism and media manipulation to make a bland article more interesting. The ban specifically targets any vehicle which crosses a certain Co2 threshold per km travelled. Of course the author chose to headline SUV's and feature a massive SUV picture in order to falsely manipulate you into believing its an attack on US culture and judging by many posts here its clearly worked. The article also makes it very unclear if London's congestion charges or these new French ban on high emission vehicles is the cause of the buying of thousands of new electric cars.