The deadline is approaching. From September 2022, two-wheelers will no longer be able to park for free in Paris. To accompany this end of free admission, a draft deliberation published by the town hall provides for the creation of a “two-wheel pass”. Objective: to make parking in basement car parks “more attractive” for two-wheelers, by offering a subscription allowing access to these private car parks at more advantageous rates.
Concretely, according to the text of the deliberation which will be submitted to the council from May 31, the “2WD pass” will allow subscription to a “reference fleet” that the driver can choose, and thus access a ” hourly parking at a reduced rate”. The other car parks “eligible for the device” will also be accessible to the driver with a preferential rate. The list of these parks is not yet known, but the town hall of Paris claims to have identified 90 of them. Eventually, more should be part of the system, we are still advancing on the side of the town hall.
The prices for this subscription will vary, as for surface parking spaces, depending on the “zones” in which the underground car parks are located. Thus, from the 1st to the 11th arrondissement, the price of the subscription will be 90 euros per month to benefit from an hourly rate of 1.20 euro. From the 12th to the 20th arrondissement, the subscription will be charged 70 euros, for an hourly rate of 80 cents.
This end of free was envisaged from 2020, during the municipal campaign. Anne Hidalgo, who was running for a second term as mayor of Paris, believed that there were “far too many motorized two-wheelers who park anywhere, who do not respect cycle paths, sidewalks”. This measure was then taken by David Belliard, the ecologist assistant in charge of travel, as part of a more global policy aimed at reusing the space dedicated to parking vehicles. The deputy, however, guaranteed that the “priority public” would, in parallel, have access to more parking spaces. Among them, people with reduced mobility, but also professionals, such as delivery people, taxis, or even nursing staff.
The town hall’s plan has been widely criticized by biker federations. In a joint press release published in December, several of them denounced an “unsuitable” project, pointing to the low number of places that have been added by the town hall of Paris for two-wheelers, which can no longer park. on the sidewalks under penalty of a fine. The mayor of Paris has promised some 5,000 additional spaces for motorized two-wheelers, a figure well below the number of daily users of this type of vehicle every day in the capital.
Biker federations are also worried about the cost of parking, which will de facto create a new item of expenditure for drivers. An exception to this rule: electric two-wheelers, which can continue to be parked for free in the capital.
