Bravo to Paris for standing up to supersize cars

Cars are getting bigger and bigger. Recent research by Transport & Environment showed that, since 2001, UK and EU car sizes have been growing, averaging an increase of a centimetre every two years.

This might not seem like much, but the average vehicle is now over 180cm wide, which is the common minimum size for marked out street parking across Europe. Over the same period, the number of cars on UK roads has increased from 25 million to 33 million today. The fashion for sports utility vehicles, or SUVs, is literally taking over our streets and polluting our towns and cities.

Last Sunday saw the people of Paris take a stand, making headlines by voting to substantially raise parking charges for SUVs coming into the city.

From as early as September, a petrol, diesel or hybrid car which parks in the city centre (residents will be exempt) and weighs more than 1.6 tonnes will be charged 18 euros an hour for the privilege. Even electric cars over two tonnes will be charged. The increase is triple the current rate. A similar rise, from four to 12 euros will be introduced to the outer Paris area.

The move is the first taken by a major European city to tackle supersized cars.  Mayor Anne Hidalgo who spearheaded the campaign, called the increase a “form of social justice” while Deputy Mayor Emmanuel Grégoire has called SUVs “an environmental disaster”.

Motoring lobby groups in France aren’t happy. The group ‘40 millions d’automobilistes’ has launched a petition to “stop the revolt against SUVs”, claiming that the move is a way to “eradicate the car as a whole”. But is that true? This move wasn’t against cars, it was specifically to manage the number of SUVs.

Bigger cars mean bigger environmental and health impacts
Since 1990, emissions from passenger cars have fallen by less than five per cent. This is in spite of improvements in efficiency and the introduction of zero emission vehicles on the road.

The reason progress has been slow is that technological improvements are pushing against the tide of more and more large vehicles. The average petrol or diesel SUV consumes a quarter more energy than a medium sized car. Their embodied emissions (generated in manufacture) are higher, and more rubber, metal and plastic is needed to build them, driving more resource extraction around the world.

You might think electrifying SUVs would solve the problem, but there are still issues. Larger vehicles require bigger batteries than smaller ones to travel the distances drivers expect. There are already environmental and human rights concerns with the extraction of materials like lithium, nickel and cobalt, and more SUVs increases that pressure.

There are also safety concerns related to bigger cars. They might make the passengers feel safer than being in a smaller car, but collisions with an SUV are more likely to harm or kill the people they hit. And those in the SUV aren’t always safer as their higher centre of gravity makes rolling the vehicle over easier.

Large vehicles like pickups and 4X4s do have a role to play in certain professions and terrains. But the trend in greater vehicle size in the car market has gone beyond need. A 2021 report from the Badvertising campaign showed that two thirds of large SUV sales are from urban residents. Wealthy London boroughs took gold, silver and bronze for the proportion of their car sales which were SUVs.

There’s an appetite for more action in the UK
The outcome of the Paris vote was the culmination of much work by the city’s politicians and advocacy by civil society groups. But, in the UK, especially in election year, politicians will understandably be cautious about taking any steps to address ‘autobesity’.

But what do people in the UK think about this? An appetite for action on SUVs seems to be building. Polling last year showed 40 per cent of voters had a negative view of 4X4s with only 21 per cent having a positive view. The difference was even greater in large urban centres like London where public spaces are increasingly dominated by big vehicles.

Our politicians should grasp the nettle as Paris has done and take action against SUVs, for the climate and a fair distribution of public space. We pedestrians, cyclists, public transport users, smaller car drivers and, ultimately, voters will thank them for it.