WE’RE NOT SURE IF IT’S just a cash grab or a genuine attempt to make drivers of huge utes pay more to park them.
A Melbourne council has given its support for a proposal which could see owners of large SUVs and utes charged higher parking fees.
The Yarra City Council, on the eastern border of Melbourne city, recently voted to explore a motion which seeks to charge parking fees based on the size of each vehicle.
The motion was inspired by similar parking regulations in Paris which discouraged heavier cars and charged parking fees based on weight.
“The key reason I’ve put this forward tonight is to do with safety,” said Cr Wade said during the council meeting, claiming the proposal was about improving the safety of children and pedestrians.
“It’s really a matter of one person’s right to drive whatever they want trumping everyone else’s right to [safety] on the street, and I don’t think that’s a compromise we should be willing to make.”
“If you live in Fitzroy or Collingwood or Richmond and you buy a Hummer you’re an absolute idiot and you need to be dealt with,” Councillor Stephen Jolly said.
“We need to know how many SUVs, Rams, Defenders, [and] Hummers are on the streets of Yarra, how many accidents are coming from these vehicles, how many fines are we charging as a result of a large oversized vehicle taking two parking spots,” he said.
It’s odd that the Hummer still engenders such strong feelings. While weighing roughly the same as a Tesla Model 3 Long Range electric sedan, the Hummer H3 – the only Hummer model to have gone on sale in Australia – only sold 1780 vehicles over a two-year period, and hasn’t been on sale new for 15 years.
“We need to ensure our most vulnerable, disadvantaged residents are not disadvantaged by some action we take here,” said Cr Jolly.
It was recommended a report be prepared “to investigate ways to make travelling on Yarra’s streets more equitable and discourage large and heavy vehicles on Yarra’s streets, including by considering proportionate parking fees based on a vehicle’s size”.
The motion also suggested adding exemptions for people with disabilities and owners of electric vehicles.This would exclude vehicles such as the BMW iX electric SUV – which is both larger than the Hummer H3, as well as being more than 300kg heavier.
While not currently on sale in Australia, excluding electric vehicles would also mean the Ford F-150 Lightning pick-up, the forthcoming Ram 1500 REV pick-up, and the GMC Hummer EV would be theoretically exempt from the parking restrictions – despite the electric Hummer weighing approximately twice as much as a diesel-powered 2024 Land Rover Defender 90.