Paris Looks to Ban SUVs

2603 Views 36 Replies 21 Participants Last post by azhimel, Jun 15, 2004

Ming

Discussion Starter · Jun 9, 2004

Paris Goes After SUVs
Wed Jun 9, 2004
Reuters.com

PARIS (Reuters) - Bulky four-by-fours could be banned from clogging up the chic streets of Paris after a top official in the capital's left-wing government described them as a polluting "caricature of a car" unsuited to city life.

"You have to wonder why people want to drive around in SUVs," Baupin, a Greens party member, said on Europe 1 radio.

"We have no interest in having SUVs in the city. They're dangerous to others and take up too much space."

The city council voted Tuesday to urge Socialist Mayor Bertrand Delanoe to consider banning SUVs, which have become popular in recent years and now make up about five percent of the French car market -- just below the western Europe average.

Baupin said Paris, which has been setting aside more lanes for buses and bicycles since a Socialist and Greens coalition took over City Hall in 2001, could not legally ban SUVs outright.

Baupin, who often cycles around Paris to promote more environmentally friendly transport, called SUVs a caricature of a car and said they were not adapted for use in a city.

"It's made for a family on vacation ... and usually they only have one person in them," he said.

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1 - 20 of 37 Posts

usa1

· #2 · Jun 9, 2004

You have to love Socialists/Green/Communists like this guy. They know what's best for everyone else.

Mark

MelvinJ

· #3 · Jun 9, 2004

Originally posted by usa1@Jun 9 2004, 07:31 PM
You have to love Socialists/Green/Communists like this guy. They know what's best for everyone else.

Mark

Good luck even defining what constitutes an SUV these days anyway, unless they do it by shear size, in which case they will be banning some large luxury cars too.

paul8488

· #4 · Jun 9, 2004

i can understand the logic here. the haphazard traffic layout throughout much of paris doesn't improve with tall, long & wide vehicles blocking sightlines during rushhour. it's one thing to educate and encourage citizens to make different choices, but another thing totally to make big vehicles illegal. i'd agree that they're not suited to city life... but in some cases they might be suited to the familes that live in the city.

nsap

· #5 · Jun 9, 2004

Thats stupid... Just a bunch of tree-huging old people that can't get into SUV's.... :lol:

Ming

Discussion Starter · #6 · Jun 9, 2004

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tgagneguam

· #7 · Jun 9, 2004

Paris is a city filled with wealthy people. Recently, I had the fortune to visit Paris, and I recall seeing an inordinate amount of "fuel miserly, environmentally friendly" cars like S-Class and CL-class Mercedes, 7-series BMW's, Audi A8's, and Aston Martins. And although SUV's sell quite well in the USA, I don't recall seeing them quite as frequently in this city. All this leads me to question the wisdom of limiting SUV's in Paris. If nothing else, it seems somewhat disingenuous to proclaim that you are acting to save the environment by limiting SUV's and then embracing large luxury chariots that offend the environment in a similar manner as SUV's and take up similar amounts of space (I cannot imagine navigating an S-class through the narrow streets of Ile St. Louis).

New_Mexico_Sunset_on_Rt66

· #8 · Jun 9, 2004

yep, we gotta fight y'all.

The whole environmental movement is all about 'control'. Nothing more, nothing less. Controlling how we live, what we drive, etc. Environmentalism is just one "ism" which has creeped into our political system to help implement the "Marxist Utopia" in this country. The image that's put forward about environmentalism, is that it's touchy-feely, nice. And that's what makes it so deceptive. As Mel Gibson has said, if we all saw the devil as a beast with horns we would know to stay away. The devil has to appear as appealing to get our attention. So we say, "Hmm, that's interesting".

We gotta wake up and fight. It's these people who don't smoke, saying we should ban smoking. These people who don't drink, saying we should ban alcohol. These people who drive hybrids, saying we should ban SUV's. And these people who don't own guns, saying we should ban guns.

Stay outta my business, and I'll stay outta your business. That's what Liberty is!

We gotta fight, otherwise they'll be lowering our flag in favor of the UN flag. Don't think it can't happen.

WAKE UP PEOPLE !!!

I DON"T WANNA BELIEVE IT EITHER, BUT IT"S TRUE !!!!!!!

:angry: :angry: :angry:

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T-Keith

· #9 · Jun 9, 2004

And people think we have it bad.

Seriously people need to think, is this where you want our country to go?

GroundedZ

· #10 · Jun 9, 2004

Fears of imperalism?

sceltor

· #11 · Jun 9, 2004

I can think of a couple people on the Autoweek forums who would get off over this article. The same people who think gas should be $5 or more per gallon. Grr...liberals.

lasma: Can't people just drive their FAT's in peace?

bksavs

· #12 · Jun 10, 2004

Didn't Al Gore talk about this a few years ago? "Why would anyone want to drive one of those"? In other words " I don't understand it, so it should be illeagal". We have that in the states too. I think the French just like to get the attention. Their always doing stuff to get peoples goat. And yes, that's as nice as I can put it.

surferdude00711

· #13 · Jun 10, 2004

French streets ar narrower than here, but so are the people, and the minds of those people, according to the propaganda floating around where I live.

stewacide

· #14 · Jun 10, 2004

Protectionism maybe? I don't think Renault, Citroen, or Peugeot have an SUV between them. I would imagine then all these SUVs are German, British, Sweedish, Japanese and even a few American! :YMCA:

ARCANGEL

· #15 · Jun 10, 2004

EVEN IF GAS WAS 5 F'n dollars agallon AMERICAN V8 -MUSCLE all THEWAY!!! You drive what you LOVE not what you have TOO!!! LIBERALS SUCK!!! :flush:

MBGTP

· #16 · Jun 10, 2004

Originally posted by New_Mexico_Sunset_on_Rt66@Jun 9 2004, 04:01 PM
yep, we gotta fight y'all.

The whole environmental movement is all about 'control'. Nothing more, nothing less. Controlling how we live, what we drive, etc. Environmentalism is just one "ism" which has creeped into our political system to help implement the "Marxist Utopia" in this country. The image that's put forward about environmentalism, is that it's touchy-feely, nice. And that's what makes it so deceptive. As Mel Gibson has said, if we all saw the devil as a beast with horns we would know to stay away. The devil has to appear as appealing to get our attention. So we say, "Hmm, that's interesting".

We gotta wake up and fight. It's these people who don't smoke, saying we should ban smoking. These people who don't drink, saying we should ban alcohol. These people who drive hybrids, saying we should ban SUV's. And these people who don't own guns, saying we should ban guns.

Stay outta my business, and I'll stay outta your business. That's what Liberty is!

We gotta fight, otherwise they'll be lowering our flag in favor of the UN flag. Don't think it can't happen.

WAKE UP PEOPLE !!!

I DON"T WANNA BELIEVE IT EITHER, BUT IT"S TRUE !!!!!!!

:angry: :angry: :angry:

"Stay outta my business and I'll stay outta your business." Exactly right and well said. So I guess gay marriage really shouldn't be an issue to any of you and the government should shut the hell up about people's private lives. Finally some people who make sense.

Ming

Discussion Starter · #17 · Jun 10, 2004

The world needs more Libertarians.

Everyone gets what they want that way.

stewacide

· #18 · Jun 10, 2004

Originally posted by Ming@Jun 10 2004, 03:57 AM
The world needs more Libertarians.

Everyone gets what they want that way.

Except the poor and powerless of course...

chris442

· #19 · Jun 10, 2004

The world needs more Libertarians, not Liberals and Conservatives forcing their own agendas on us.

Amen to that.

It's idiots like these people that think that they know better than everybody else that ruin society.

It's things like this that made me become a Libertarian.

azhimel

· #20 · Jun 10, 2004

<_< Is anyone here French?

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