Directorate-General for Traffic proposes large cars pay more to park in cities

Although it has long been a rumour and a demand, finally the deputy director of the DGT, Susana Gomez, has acknowledged that the Spanish Directorate-General for Traffic (DGT) is studying a plan to present to the executive that involves making larger cars pay more to park in cities.

According to Susana Gómez in an interview on the EY Mobility Center portal, this is an old demand of the main Spanish consistories, which ask the DGT to introduce in the registry of each car its dimensions to be able to measure the price of the parking meter according to the degree of occupation of public space.

As the deputy director of the DGT acknowledges in the interview, she plans to "have a vehicle register with the length, height and width of vehicles completed before the end of the year" with the aim of helping local councils to regulate new parameters and rates for parking in publicly-owned urban environments.

With this new system of rates, a large vehicle, such as a family SUV, would pay more to park on the street than an urban car, but it is still unknown how this will affect cars with eco-label or zero emissions, which until now enjoyed benefits when parking in blue or green areas of large Catalan capitals. To put it in another way, a Tesla Model S is a very large but fully electric car, and can now park for free in many areas of the city whereas a Seat Ibiza from five or ten years ago with a diesel or petrol engine has to pay to do so, even though it takes up less space.

It is also worth noting that this initiative comes at a time when the majority of new car sales in Spain are of SUVs or off-roaders, larger than conventional cars, even though the percentage of new diesel-engined vehicles has fallen to historic lows during the 21st century while there has been a huge increase in electrified cars, be they hybrids or plug-in hybrids, mild hybrids, or pure electric.