The London Assembly has passed a motion calling on Sadiq Khan to provide support for increased regulation on large passenger vehicles.
The Assembly cited an article by Fleet News, which claims that cars are getting bigger by an average of 1cm every two years, resulting in 52% of cars sold being too large for minimum parking spaces.
The motion was proposed by Elly Baker AM, who has worked on key campaigns fighting for fair funding for TFL, saving important bus routes, keeping ticket offices open and for cheaper fares, including concession rates for vulnerable groups.
Baker said her personal experience and speaking to people in the community is what motivated her to push the motion.
She continued: “I live in outer London and drive myself, so I experience the changes on the road, and parking and sort of the feel of it with larger and larger cars.
“And then the work of the SUV Alliance and various other campaign groups highlighting the impact to road safety, particularly the impact on vulnerable road users and people in smaller cars, really brought home what I was experiencing and talking to people about into practical policy terms.”
Baker was also keen to point to the fact that larger cars are a lot less safe for other road users.
She said: “Bonnet height, particularly, is a really big risk factor if there’s a collision.”
This claim is supported by a VIAS Institute study, which found that a 10cm increase in the height of vehicle fronts carries a 30% higher risk of fatalities in collisions with pedestrians and cyclists.
The same study also found that in a collision between a 1,600 kg car and a lighter 1,300 kg car, the risk of fatal injuries decreases by 50% for the occupants of the heavier car but increases by nearly 80% for the occupants of the lighter car.
As these graphs show, the UK makes up a large proportion of sales for most of the cars sold with high bonnets, even though the UK population is only roughly 15% of that of the entire EU.
The data sourced is from Transport & Environment, a Belgian government body, but the study they conducted encompassed all of Europe, Norway and the UK.
This may not be surprising given that Land Rover, and Jaguar as a subsidiary, up until 2008, when they were bought by the Indian company Tata Motors, were a British-owned brand.
The UK’s affinity for high bonneted cars cannot be understated as in the same T&E report, it was found that the UK accounted for 39% of all sales of SUV’s with bonnets more than 1 metre high, despite accounting for a mere 15% of total new car sales in Europe (EU, UK and Norway).
Alongside the London Assembly, the T&E and the Clean Cities Campaign has called upon the EU and UK to cap the maximum height of car bonnets, recommending an 85cm maximum for new cars from 2035.
This 85cm figure was chosen to protect 95% of adult female pedestrians involved in crashes as only 5% of adult females in Europe have a centre of gravity lower than 86cm, and being struct below one’s centre of gravity increases survival rates.
Beyond the potential danger to road users, larger cars can also risk greater damage to road infrastructure.
According to the London Assembly’s website, SUVs cause significant damage to roads and are responsible, at least in part, for the London road maintenance backlog rising to £1.9 billion, which has placed pressure on already stretched local authority and TFL resources.
Despite this, as the below graph shows, the percentage of UK roads requiring maintenance has remained fairly consistent since 2007.
When the national average is compared against exclusively London roads, however, it becomes clear that London is disproportionately affected by road maintenance issues, with the capital consistently matching or exceeding the UK average.
Nonetheless, following a debate, the motion was put to a vote and passed with 14 votes for and eight against.
Party allegiances in the assembly were clearly steadfast, as of the 14 votes for, nine were from Labour, three from Green and two from Liberal Democrats, whilst of the eight votes against, seven were from the Conservatives and one from Reform.
According to the London Assembly website, in passing the motion: “The Assembly calls on the Mayor to:
“Write to the Department for Transport asking that they update their vehicle regulations to introduce tighter limits on passenger vehicle size and bonnet height.
“Write to HM Treasury asking that they introduce a progressive tax on passenger vehicle weight into Vehicle Excise Duty.
“Write to London Councils asking them to explore the feasibility of boroughs charging higher parking charges to SUVs to account for pressure they put on road space and local parking spaces.”
In passing the motion, London follows Paris’s lead on clamping down on large vehicles, as last year the city approved increased parking charges for heavier vehicles.
So, whilst larger cars often provide more comfort, convenience and safety, they present serious problems with regard to parking, the safety of other road users and general infrastructure.
But whilst there certainly is still a significant reliance on cars, and motor vehicles more generally, in London, recent TFL statistics revealed that, as of 2024, the number of daily cycle journeys has increased by five per cent since 2023, and an impressive 26 per cent compared to 2019.
So, with this uptake in alternative modes of transport, alongside an increased awareness of the environmental risks of continual motor use, perhaps the impact of increased vehicle size will be somewhat negligible in the long run.
Featured image from Unsplash
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