London’s road hogs could soon face having to pay extra charges for driving in the capital and taking up extra space on our roads and in residential parking bays.
Road hog: having 4×4 capability is essential for driving in the suburbs
Sir Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of London, has today re-launched his Vision Zero policy, which aims to reduce serious and fatal injuries on the city’s streets to zero by 2041.
And as part of the exercise, he has asked Transport for London to investigate the risk posed to pedestrians and cyclists by larger cars and SUVs – “sports utility vehicles”.
“Chelsea Tractors” are especially popular in London, where having 4×4 capability is essential for a drive to Waitrose… SUVs account for about 60% of new car sales in Britain.
They also hog parking spaces, on our roads and in car parks, taking up extra space which often makes it almost impossible for those driving regular-sized cars to be able to park safely in adjoining bays.
SUVs can occupy up to 9/10ths of a typical 4.8metre x 2.4m car park parking bay. While a standard hatchback might fit comfortably, an SUV leaves less than 20cm of clearance – increasing the risk of “door-ding” damage.
Parking bay sizes were established around 50 years ago, when vehicles were generally much more compact. Cars have now grown to a point where, according to motoring organisation the RAC, “many vehicles are now too large to fit in standard parking spaces”.
The RAC says, “From SUVs, to larger family vehicles, today’s models take up more room than their predecessors – creating challenges to park both on the street and in car parks.”
And these bigger and heavier vehicles are also especially deadly when in collisions with pedestrians and cyclists.
Research in London has found that cyclists and pedestrians who are hit by “supersized” cars are 44% more likely to be killed than if they were run over by a conventional car.
Deadly toll: TfL figures show that injuries and fatalities from RTAs are declining, but not quickly enough to achieve Vision Zero’s 2041 target
The risk is even greater for children: they are 82% more likely to suffer fatal injuries in a SUV collision than one involving a car. In children under 10, the risk of death ss 130% higher.
“Without action to address oversized and heavier vehicles, more people will be seriously injured or killed,” the Vision Zero document published today states.
There have been an average of 100 road deaths a year for every year since the start of 2022 and more than 3,000 serious injuries a year.
The action plan admits the “challenge is vast and growing” and adds: “The number of people killed or seriously injured every day is unacceptable.”
There are more than 23 million road journeys in London on a typical day.
According to a report in the Standard, “TfL admits that if nothing more is done, then the number of deaths and serious injuries will increase.
“This is because of the growth in London’s population and in traffic levels, the increase in cycling, the fact that cars are getting ‘bigger and heavier’ and ‘worsening trends in [driver] behaviour on the roads’.”
TfL already has road charging technology in place throughout the capital, for the congestion zone in central London and ULEZ. TfL is expected to conduct its own studies to establish what course of action to take regarding SUV road use.
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