Britain’s cars and SUVs are growing bigger – but there is a way to stop this deadly ‘carspreading’ | Christian Wolmar
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- SUVs now comprise 30% of cars in England's cities, up from 3% 20 years ago, and there is no UK width restriction for cars until they reach the 2.55-metre HGV limit, meaning fewer than half of new UK cars fit a conventional parking space.
- Clean Cities research found that a 10cm bonnet-height increase (from 80cm to 90cm) creates a 27% greater chance of pedestrian death, with children's death risk rising threefold when struck by an SUV versus a conventional vehicle.
- Hove's Norton Road car park lost 110 spaces (290 down to 180) to accommodate larger vehicles, illustrating the physical footprint cost of carspreading on shared infrastructure.
- The UK government's January road safety strategy flagged SUV risk but proposed no concrete action beyond 'a chat with the industry,' in the words of podcaster Mark Walker, while pavement-parking policy was likewise described as needing to be 'cautious.'
- London Mayor Sadiq Khan announced he is exploring new levies and extra parking charges on large vehicles — and may ditch his own armoured SUV — while Paris has already introduced weight-based parking surcharges to reflect road damage from heavier cars.
- Clean Cities strategy director Oliver Lord called the UK 'a tax haven for these vehicles,' noting that a BMW X5 carries a £66,000 tax in France versus just £3,200 in Britain, with Transport and Environment Network research finding UK buyers pay up to 20 times less than in other European countries.
- European cars are widening by an average of a centimetre per year, and even Minis have expanded into standard medium-sized cars, per Guardian-reported research Wolmar cites.
Why it matters: UK regulators now have Clean Cities data quantifying SUV pedestrian risk, but the central-government response amounts to industry consultation while London and Paris move on parking levies. With SUVs already 30% of city vehicles and the UK taxing them up to 20 times less than France, ministers face a clear fiscal lever — or rising child pedestrian fatalities as bonnet heights keep climbing.
