And as of Thursday, two companies were called upon to track down the offenders.
“We must get out of this exemption which scooters and motorcycles finally benefited from. It is a difficult measure, which requires a significant effort but which is essential for the continuation and the fight against pollution”, reminds AFP David Belliard, assistant (EELV) for mobility and the transformation of public space at the city of Paris.
Air pollution, noise pollution but also “better balancing of public space” or even migration towards “less polluting and softer mobility”, are all arguments put forward for the application of a measure that is debating for several years.
Since Thursday, to park your motorized two-wheeler (2RM) in the streets of Paris, you have to pay a payment if it is a thermal vehicle. In the center of the capital, parking costs 3 euros per hour compared to 2 euros in the outer districts.
It is possible to benefit from a residential rate: the annual card is worth 22.50 euros per year, to which are added 0.75 euros per day of parking. A professional pass is also offered and free is applied for electric 2WD and for disabled 2WD. But for all, it is compulsory to register on an online site, open at the end of June. By Tuesday, some 10,250 requests had been granted, according to the town hall.
Christophe (who does not wish to give his name) took advantage of the last free hours. Dissatisfied but resigned, this suburbanite who lives in Issy-les-Moulineaux (Hauts-de-Seine) has a habit of coming with his two-wheelers to his place of work, in the center of Paris. From now on, “it will be a maximum of teleworking so as not to come to Paris anymore,” he told AFP.
“This measure is prohibitively expensive. The day is at least 40 euros when you are not a resident. It is not viable”, regrets this computer engineer, who thought well of investing in an electric 2WD before changing his mind : “It’s extremely expensive. It’s almost double that of a thermal”.
– “Really discriminating” –
Others have already opted for the electric motorized two-wheeler – the manager of a small electric 2WD store in the 3rd arrondissement of Paris told AFP that he had sold around sixty copies in the last week alone.
“The problem is the mileage, the electric is a real utopia”, retorts Sébastien Mazelier, itinerant employee in Paris in security, living in the north-western suburbs. “You cannot do more than 120 km per day empty. With the weight of the person, and I am 100 kg, I cannot exceed 70 km”.
For the Federation of Angry Bikers (FFCM), the measure is “really discriminatory, especially for the poorest who live in the suburbs”. “Accommodation in Paris has become so expensive that people are exported further and further. The most affected are the suburbanites. It’s a real social problem, they cannot cycle 40 km”, notes the AFP the Ile-de-France delegate of the FFMC, Jean-Marc Belotti.
The FFMC, which organized 18 demonstrations in a year and a half against the measure according to Mr. Belotti, launched a petition which collected some 41,700 signatures on Wednesday evening.
“In the resistance”, the FFMC is for the moment “not in the negotiation” and plans a demonstration Saturday noon in front of the town hall of Paris. An appeal to the administrative court was filed last September to annul the decree.
David Belliard says he understands the anger of bikers and maintains his course: “We are experiencing a form of revolution in life. We are in a chase with climate change which is unfortunately going much faster than the transformations that we are operating”.
“We are going to encourage people to go (park) underground, we are going to recover public space, we are going to better regulate illegal parking, I hope,” argues Mr. Belliard.
