BERLIN (dpa-AFX) - Deutsche Umwelthilfe has applied for higher parking fees and parking restrictions for SUV vehicles in 150 German cities. As the organization announced on Tuesday, applications were sent out to the respective mayors in all 16 federal states. Most of the applications went to North Rhine-Westphalia (36) and Rhineland-Palatinate (26) - including the cities of Koln, Düsseldorf, Mainz and Wiesbaden. According to DUH, the aim of the applications is to get the cities to take tougher action against heavy off-road vehicles.

According to the environmental organization, residents' parking fees should be increased to at least 360 euros per year, with a sliding scale depending on the size of the vehicle. Deutsche Umwelthilfe is aiming for much stricter limits on parking.

The city of Paris is the model for these efforts. In a public survey there in February of this year, a majority voted in favor of tripling the parking fees for this type of vehicle. From September, the French capital wants to charge 18 euros instead of the usual six euros for one-hour parking for SUVs and other heavy vehicles in the city center.

Following the Paris decision, the DUH also called on German citizens online to take action against the vehicles it describes as "monster SUVs". 19,000 people took part in the campaign and instructed Umwelthilfe to submit the relevant applications to the cities on their behalf.

The DUH emphasizes that it does not consider family cars such as vans to be SUVs. But here, too, there has been a trend for many years "for cars of every vehicle class to become ever larger and heavier", the organization laments./faa/DP/jha