Campaigners say the vehicles present an increased danger to children due to taller bonnets leaving drivers unable to see them crossing the street, report Kumail Jaffer, Local Democracy Reporter

Campaigners are urging City Hall to penalise SUV drivers with higher levies after new research revealed there are now 800,000 on London’s roads – ten times more than two decades ago.

New research from Clean Cities, an organisation promoting active transport, has revealed that the proportion of cars defined as an SUV in London is now 31% – up from 3% in 2003.

An SUV (sport utility vehicle) is a car classification that combines elements of road-going passenger cars with features from off-road vehicles. They tend to be much larger than typical British saloon cars.

But campaigners and London Assembly Members said the capital’s roads were not designed for the “monster” vehicles and that they should be discouraged from being used in urban areas.

Aside from clogging up London’s narrow roads and parking spaces, they said, SUVs present an increased danger to children due to taller bonnets leaving drivers unable to see them crossing the street.

Petrol and hybrid SUVs also release more carbon dioxide per kilometre than older cars of the same fuel type, according to a recent study, prompting concerns that increasing SUV ownership is contrary to City Hall’s environmental goals.

Mayor of London Sir Sadiq Khan has now faced calls to impose weight-based parking and emission charges as well as cracking down on SUV advertisements, which Oliver Lord, the head of UK Clean Cities, said was a major factor in their proliferation.

He told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS): “Almost two-thirds of all new cars sold are SUVs – they give a higher profit margin to manufacturers, who prioritise selling them.

“We’re really up against it with this – consumers are actually becoming more limited in choice.

“There are some boroughs in London which have introduced progressive tariffs around carbon emissions – but they’re swiftly becoming out of date as electric and hybrid cars, like the plug-in hybrid Land Rover, become more common.

“Boroughs should look at their parking charges again and introduce a weight-based tariff.”

He added that any congestion charge changes should help encourage electric vehicles and “perhaps put a surcharge on the heaviest and larger cars to discourage the use of SUVs in London”.

Lord called Ulez “world leading on air pollution” but claimed it “hasn’t led to the levels of reduction we need on carbon emissions”, however he said “tackling SUVs is where we will see that change”.

To do this, the group said Paris – where parking charges are tripled for “heavy” or SUV-type vehicles – was a good model to follow.

The organisation says its research also showed that SUVs on UK roads are 14% more likely to kill a pedestrian or cyclist and 77% more likely to kill a child, as compared to a traditional passenger car.

Tests conducted using some SUV models reportedly found that in a Land Rover Defender, the driver cannot see children aged up to four-and-a-half due to the height of the bonnet. For a Ram TRX, the figure is nine years old, they say.

Lord warned that, without radical change, the mayor’s ‘vision zero’ goal for London, which aims to eliminate all deaths and serious injuries from the capital’s transport network by 2041, will fail.

“We’re looking forward to seeing a refresh of the mayor’s strategy – heavier cars are more likely to be involved in fatal collisions,” Lord added.

James Ward, of campaign group SUV Alliance, told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS): “Despite being advertised as exciting, family friendly cars, the evidence is mounting to show that SUVs are more dangerous, especially to children, and are hogging space on our already congested roads.

“The mayor and TfL, working alongside councils across London, have the opportunity to address the issue, to save lives on the capital’s roads, and to make public spaces more attractive and less polluted.

“Measures like weight-based parking charges and SUV advertising restrictions across TfL would reduce the presence of SUVs on our streets and ensure owners of large, expensive SUVs pay fairly for the damage they cause.”

In June, Labour’s environment spokesperson on the London Assembly, Elly Baker, moved a motion to address the impacts of ‘car spreading’ – a term used when vehicles get too wide for urban spaces.

It called on the mayor to ask ministers to enforce tighter limits on vehicle sizes, put a tax on vehicle weight and allow councils to impose higher parking charges on SUVs.

Baker told the LDRS: “London’s limited road space wasn’t designed for the monster vehicles we are now seeing sold. SUVs are clogging up our street space, making parking difficult, and the increased bonnet height and weight increase the risk of serious injury or death in a collision.

“We should be placing limits on the size of normal vehicles, and exploring increased charges where appropriate.”

A spokesperson for Khan said: “The mayor, Transport for London and borough partners are working to eliminate deaths and serious injuries on our roads, by expanding the cycle network, making road crossings and junctions safer, reducing speed limits on our roads, and making larger vehicles like HGVs and buses safer.

“This year, the mayor will be refreshing his Vision Zero Action Plan to restate his commitment to reducing road danger and responding to new and emerging risks on our roads.”

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