According to research by Transport & Environment (T&E), the average width of new cars expanded to 180cm in the first half of 2023 and vehicle widths having increased by an average of a centimetre every couple of years over the last decade. With new cars being subject to the same maximum width restrictions as buses, it surely won’t be long before the fabled Chelsea tractor becomes the Chelsea double decker bus instead.
Having moved from the city to the countryside in the non-too distant past, it was at first glance, somewhat surprising that the SUV’s were prevalent in the town centre and outside the schools whilst the local famer pottered around in a Ford Fiesta. The main reasons for this are however entirely sensible - SUV’s cost too much, use too much fuel, and aren’t actually rugged enough for work purposes. The most popular styles don’t even have much more interior space than a standard hatchback.
So despite the ‘tractor’ moniker, the SUV is an urban issue - three quarters of SUVs recently sold in the UK were registered to urban households in 2019/20 and the top three districts for biggest vehicles are all inner London boroughs - Kensington and Chelsea, Hammersmith and Fulham, and Westminster - where one in three new private cars bought is a large SUV compared with one in ten nationally.
It’s a creeping trend. The popularity of SUV’s tempts car manufacturers towards ‘autobesity,’ with non-SUV models being widened, lengthened, and styled to emulate the SUV aesthetic – the ‘Crossover’ vehicle. A recent 'Which?' study shows that over 150 car models are now too wide for the minimum specified on-street parking space in major cities, including London and Paris. In short, modern standard vehicles are finding it a squeeze, but the SUVs simply do not fit.
The unfortunate impact of this trend in our towns and cities is obvious, the need for larger parking spaces is to the detriment of pedestrians, cyclists, and our urban realm. Often large vehicles are seen sticking out into the carriageway or restricting the footway, making the environment around them more challenging for all and especially for more vulnerable users. Bigger also often means heavier – the average SUV squeaks in at just below the 3.5 tonne limit, putting it on a par with a panel van. Some electric EVs in the US now even top out at a hefty 4 tonnes, a weight that the vast majority of road and parking infrastructure is just not designed for.
But why are we so obsessed with SUVs?
Contrary to all the above, they’re often seen as safer and more convenient, and have a luxury appeal that is increasingly familiar as daily lives (and all their associated stylings and purchases) are commodified for social media. Marketed as the ideal family car, they offer great views, comfortable seats, and are supposedly easier to drive. A big car feels indomitable. It gives a sense of security on a road that might be shared with even bigger trucks, but increasing evidence suggests that the appeal is a paradox, and that SUVs are not as safe as they seem. It’s well recorded in research that most drivers, even of modest vehicles, vastly overrate their driving skill, and that false confidence is easy to instil where care and responsibility are overly delegated to technology. Even the home of the Big Car, America, is starting to question the dream.
An eye-opening experiment by News4 I-Team identified that blind spots around a typical SUV were much larger than either fully communicated by the manufacturer or appreciated by the driver. In fact, up to 13 children could sit in a line in front of the vehicle before the driver could catch a glimpse of one over the bonnet, and that was with the driver actively looking. This may explain the spike in 'driveover' child fatalities in the US since 2005.
With statistics suggesting they cause more traffic accidents than smaller cars, with more severe injuries (the higher level of the bonnet and grill hits a pedestrian in more vulnerable parts of the torso rather than the legs), there’s an increasing level of pushback. When an SUV diver lost control in Berlin, resulting in the deaths of 4 people, there was immediate public outcry and a call to ban the vehicles. A similar tragedy happened right here in the UK, just 6 months ago. With Paris leading the charge to put complaint into policy, it would not be surprising to see Berlin and other cities follow suit. Will we?
Whilst we all have opinions about how much space cars should be given on our streets, 40% of car sales are now SUVs in the UK.
Is it time for us to step back and consider our relationship with the SUV and question whether they are really necessary given our move towards a safer, greener, and more sustainable world?
By Damian Tungatt, Director
&
Sarah Chapman, Principal Transport Planner
