Let’s make like the French and get bigger cars to pay more
In February, Parisians took action against weight–gaining SUVs and voted in favour of tripling parking fees for cars weighing more than 1.6 tons. With SUV sales on the rise in UK towns and cities, should we make like the French and get them pay for the damage they cause?
Cars are getting bigger, and on a small island with limited road space that’s a big problem. Originally designed to transport soldiers across tricky terrain, SUVs are now a regular feature of our urban environments with three quarters of all SUVs sold in the UK registered to people living in towns and cities.
But the fact is that these vehicles are simply too big for city streets. The recent referendum in Paris was brought on by the city’s already-narrow streets being clogged by these impractically large cars. In the UK, many of our towns and cities still have Georgian, Medieval, even Roman streets; not designed with four-wheel-drive in mind. SUVs were designed to cover large distances over difficult terrain, not two miles of West London tarmac.
Increasingly these vehicles are obstructing pedestrians and other road users by overhanging standard parking bays, blocking pavements and impeding buses on narrow streets, increasing journey times. They are heavier, cause more damage to road surfaces and disproportionately add to congestion by taking up more space.
The increasing number of SUVs is not just an inconvenience. It has very serious safety consequences, threatening our lives, health and efforts to reduce carbon emissions from transport. The Global Fuel Economy Initiative (a partnership that supports government moves to reduce the amount of fuel used by vehicles) found that energy use for combustion engine vehicles between 2010 and 2022 could have fallen at an average annual rate that was 30 per cent higher if vehicles had stayed the same size.
Big cars produce more harmful air pollution and their size also makes them more dangerous in a collision. Every 16 minutes someone is killed or seriously injured on UK roads, but SUVs are eight times more likely to kill a child than an average passenger car.
It’s clear that we cannot let the growth in these vehicles continue unchecked. At Campaign for Better Transport, we are in favour of emissions-based parking charges and better parking enforcement to help reduce the impact of large vehicles on our roads and public transport system.
A number of local authorities and London boroughs have already implemented or are considering emissions-based resident parking. We think this is something that needs to be looked at more consistently across the UK. However, as the example of Kensington and Chelsea has shown, this in itself will not be enough to properly address the issue, as the owners have proven more than capable of paying charges which have been quadrupled in this area.
Government needs to address the current situation where car manufacturers are incentivised to sell larger cars due to higher profit margins. It should instead incentivise, or regulate, the production of smaller cars which, particularly in urban settings, are more practical, better for the communities in which they are used, and far better for the environment.
Put simply, larger cars have a larger impact on our roads, our health and our planet. Vehicle owners need to accept that if they choose to drive a larger, more polluting vehicle, that comes at a price.
