If there’s one thing the French can’t leave behind during the All Saints Day festivities, it’s parking meters. From morning to night, often 7 days a week in tourist towns that make money at exponential rates specific to each municipality… Not to mention the variable geometry penalty that hits anyone who forgets to pick up a ticket: known packet after parking (FPS). An invention born in 2018, during the privatization of paid parking violations, which allowed a number of municipalities to intensify the operation of parking meters. And make it juicy! already by increasing the street parking cost, then by freely setting the FPS sizewhich often significantly exceeds the old PV of 17 euros (calc on average from 27 euros to 75 euros), finally entrusting control to private companies.

340 million euros in revenue in 2022

A jackpot that, unlike the old system, goes into the pockets of municipalities. And since then it has grown dramatically: from 157 million euros in 2018, we have risen – after the Covid brackets – to 272 million in 2021. And in 2022? More than 340 million (for 13.7 million prepared FPS), almost half of which are for… Paris! We took this balance sheet from the file of the same name published by Bercy every year. A bottomless pit of numbers from which we extracted one piece of data: 507 out of 623 municipalities with paid parking received revenue related to FPS from the smallest (Vilfranche-de-Conflin in the Eastern Pyrenees, 215 inhabitants) to the largest (Paris). So, a minimal estimate with some data missing, but which provides a good overview of the martingale. Judge for yourself! And if you want to know where your city is, go to the site: Fps-stationnement.fr.

Paris, plum champion (always!)

At least in this Champions League, no one can beat Paris. It is simple, in itself, the capital is almost as powerful as all other cities together with 159 million euros of FPS revenue in 2022. magic! It must be said that the city monitors its 140,000 road sections like no other. Two companies are responsible for washing the free riders, including about thirty “PV sulfate machines”, each automatically monitors up to 10,000 cars per day. Not to mention the agents on foot who are now focused on the new arrival of motorized two-wheelers. Add to that one of the most expensive FPS in France and you get a nine-figure turnover… Not forgetting about 180 million is also collected directly from the parking meters!

Surprises in the Top-20

In comparison, the rest of the podium, like the following municipalities, almost look like small pens… Knowing that their accounts are not always easy to keep, in particular due to complex payments in megacities (indicated opposite with the letter “M”). We quickly see how unexpected municipalities appear: Surens is in the top 10, then Montreux, as well as Vincennes, Bagnier… So many cities – all located in the Paris region – we did not expect such a high level. Assume that the means they use to control parking are paid in cash.

Below is a list of the first 30 plum champion cities:

Read also:

Do you know these hidden features of your car?

ZFE: Which cars will no longer be able to drive in 2023?

How does the inner ring road differ from the outer ring road?