Call for scooters to pay parking

SCOOTERS clogging up Paris pavements have been targeted by a pedestrians’ pressure group which has called for them to be made to pay parking fees and the money used to create more parking spaces.

In the run-up to the municipal elections in March, the group Droits du Piéton has called on the new mayor to introduce parking fees and get rid of obstructions on the pavements, which can impede people in wheelchairs.

The group has lodged a claim with the Paris administrative tribunal calling for two-wheelers to pay for parking and this will be considered in the next few days.

The number of scooters and motorbikes has doubled in Paris in 15 years and while there are up to 150,000 on the capital’s streets each day there are just 45,000 parking places. Two-wheelers make up 15% of the daily traffic.

Each year 100,000 parking fines are issued for parking on pavements but the Préfet de Police called in 2008 for some leniency where two-wheelers were not blocking the way.

The Paris council has already voted unanimously in favour of a call by ecologist candidate Christophe Najdovski for more parking spaces to be created and both Socialist candidate and present deputy mayor Anne Hidalgo and UMP rival Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet have called for more spaces.

Ms Hidalgo says she wants to create another 20,000 spaces on large pavements – between trees and areas that pedestrians do not use – while Ms Kosciusko-Morizet says she plans to triple the number of parking spaces.