A ban on SUV ads could help create the happier cities we want
You may have also noticed that the cars on our streets – and in the adverts – are getting bigger. A new report by the New Weather Institute and climate charity Possible shows that SUV sales are rising and that: “In 2019 alone, over 150,000 new cars were sold in the UK which are too big to fit in a standard parking space.”
The tantalising wild landscapes so common in adverts for these giant cars seem all the more deceitful when you look at the reality: that globally rising sales of SUVs are the second biggest cause of increasing CO2 emissions. Climate change and extraction are already devastating many of our natural landscape. But that truth won’t sell many cars.
https://adfreecities.org.uk/2020/08/a-ban-on-suv-ads-could-help-create-the-happier-cities-we-want/
Call to ban SUVs from city centres after Selena Lau, 8, killed in school crash horror
Calls have been made for SUVs to be banned from built-up areas after a girl was killed in a crash outside her primary school. Eight-year-old Selena Lau was killed during a tea party at The Study Preparatory School in Wimbledon.
With three quarters of new SUV sales going to owners who live in urban homes, there are calls for curbs on their use. The European Transport Safety Council (ETSC) called Thursday’s crash a “terrible and avoidable tragedy” and wants a ban on SUVs in towns and cities in a bid to cut cyclist and pedestrian fatalities.
https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/black-country/call-ban-suvs-city-centres-27282940
SUVs ‘eight times more dangerous’ to kids walking or cycling than smaller cars are
Fatal pedestrian and pedal cyclist crashes have been on the rise in the United States since 2009. This rise in fatalities coincides with the rise of large vehicles on American roadways, continuing a trend that began years earlier.
Method: Through rare access to both crash and hospital records, this report investigates the relationship between striking vehicle type and medical outcomes of pedestrian and pedal cyclist cases.
Results: Results suggest that children are eight times more likely to die when struck by a SUV compared to those struck by a passenger car.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0022437522000810?via=ihub
Range Rover vandalised in Broughty Ferry with neighbours threatened ‘will it be your SUV next?’
Paris to charge SUV drivers higher parking fees to tackle ‘auto-besity’
Paris city hall is to impose higher parking fees on owners of SUVs in its battle to reduce pollution in the capital.
Details of the charges have not been announced but the size, weight of the vehicle and its motor will be taken into consideration.
Electric vehicles and those with large families requiring a bigger car are expected to escape the increased fees that will come into effect on 1 January 2024.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jul/11/paris-charge-suv-drivers-higher-parking-fees-tackle-auto-besity