Parisian motorists can be reassured: despite the recommendations of the regional chamber of accounts, parking prices in the streets of the capital are not going to increase anytime soon. “The increase in tariffs is not on the agenda”, says firmly David Belliard, the environmental assistant in charge of transport. A political choice linked to the will of elected officials not to increase the financial burden of Parisians at a time when they already have to deal with marked inflation, especially for fuel.
Very determined in its fight against the car, the pink-red-green team which runs Paris nevertheless had a golden opportunity to initiate new measures. In a report on the underground car parks of the City of Paris which has just been completed, the Regional Chamber of Accounts (CRC) of Ile-de-France in fact encourages the town hall to raise the prices of parking spaces in the streets.
In this document, also disclosed by The Parisian, the magistrates of the CRC warn the elected officials. Today, “the City of Paris seems to pursue contradictory objectives”, they observe. She obviously wants to pull underground car parks “the highest possible royalty level”, through expensive tariffs. But simultaneously, she hears “enhance the attractiveness” of these underground car parks “in order to free up space on the surface public domain”, for example to install cycle paths or plant trees.
Double evolution of prices
Pushing motorists to park underground seems all the more legitimate since the car parks concerned often turn out to be half empty. Over the past dozen years, Parisians have owned fewer and fewer cars, and the use of underground car parks has continued to decline. In 2019, the last known year, the occupancy rate of spaces reserved for hourly parking was limited to 42%, and that of spaces for subscribers to 59%. “Today, many parks are never saturated,” notes the report.
How to fill both the basements and the coffers of the City? The CRC experts have their idea. They suggest a double evolution of tariffs. The rates for underground car parks should be lowered, while increasing those on the surface, especially for residents, so that the gap between the two really encourages motorists to opt for the basement.
In practice, the City of Paris has already embarked on this path. Since 1er July 2021, the hourly rates for surface parking have been raised to become more expensive than those underground. Thus, for “visitors”, “parking in underground car parks has become more attractive”, applauds the CRC. However, she adds, “the City has not gone to the end of this process”. For residents, surface parking rates, frozen since 2015 at 42.75 euros per month, remain in effect “much inferior” to those practiced in the underground car parks. Depending on the district, these vary from 44.40 euros to more than… 318 euros per month. Enough to push Parisians to continue to park their cars in the streets.
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