If you live in the UK like I do, you've probably noticed something: there are more and more SUVs and similar large cars on the streets. They accounted for 63 percent of new car sales in the UK last year, up from 12 percent in 2010.
Globally, the figure is around 48 percent and shows no signs of declining. Cars are getting bigger, and that's a problem. I work on the links between transport and health. This month, together with my colleagues, I made call BMJ to take action – locally, nationally and internationally – to restrict sales of these vehicles.
The main categories of health hazards from cars are road hazards, pollution, and people driving instead of walking or biking, which is better for their physical health. Larger, heavier vehicles are less likely to cope with all three of these risks.
Intuitively, big cars are more dangerous if they run over you. Their front end is blunter and taller than other cars, and this bad news for cyclists and pedestrians if one of these cars hits you. Last year, I participated in a review of all the studies looking at what happens when an SUV hits a pedestrian or cyclist. We found that adults made up 44 percent more likely die if hit by an SUV rather than a regular car. The review estimates that 10 percent of pedestrian and cyclist deaths and serious injuries in the United States could be prevented if SUVs were replaced by smaller vehicles. This means about 1,700 deaths and serious injuries every year.
Cars are also getting wider, a trend known as “car proliferation.” On average, new cars in Europe received half a centimeter wider every year from 2010 to 2024. There is not a lot of space on the roads and most of it is taken up by cars, which means there will be less space for people cycling or using other forms of transport. We know that if more people walked and cycled, there would be great benefits to your health. So the rise of cars means we're missing out on that growth potential as well.
The large size of these vehicles also results in more air pollution. The move to more electric vehicles is obviously good news as it means fewer tailpipe emissions. But even if SUVs are electric, fine particles from tires and brakes are now main sources urban air pollution and is produced by both electric and fossil fuel vehicles. Because SUVs are heavier than other vehicles, they tend to produce more particles from tires and brakes, so we don't see the same air-cleaning benefits from electric SUVs as we do from small electric vehicles.
So what can we do to reduce the number of these large, dangerous, high-emission SUVs? My colleagues and I have several suggestions. Some major cities now have clean air zones, such as the Ultra Low Emission Zone in London. This prompts people to think about the pollution caused by old cars, although it does not concern the size of the vehicle. However, in the UK the situation is changing as Cardiff Council Plans to charge owners of SUVs and larger vehicles more for residential parking permits were approved in October. It means the Welsh capital joins Paris, which famously tripled the parking fees for SUVs in its city centre, as well as other cities in Germany and France that charge higher fees for parking heavier and larger vehicles.
In addition to parking regulations, national governments could consider changing vehicle taxes, for example to encourage smaller cars. Tax increases on large vehicles will be commensurate with their costs to society due to road hazards and pollution.
Some people have reasons for needing a larger car. But now that about half of new car sales are SUVs, we need to be clear about the dangers they pose to our health. If we want to make our streets safer and our air cleaner, we need people to consider these issues when buying a car. We also need governments to do more to bring the cost of these cars in line with the additional danger and pollution they cause.
Anthony Laverty studies at the School of Public Health, Imperial College London.
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