Taking space from other road users
In moving traffic, ever-wider passenger vehicles also take space from other road users. As well as
crowding out cycling, ever-wider passenger vehicles also more frequently impede the movement of
public vehicles such as buses, fire tenders, recycling trucks and trams.15 When wide SUVs narrow the
lane such that other road users can’t pass, or struggle to pass,16 they make movement needlessly
inefficient, hassle-some - and often less safe.
Ever-wider cars are also privatising public space on a major, but largely undocumented, scale. To take
the example illustrated above, the cumulative loss of road width to other road users is more than half a
metre (60 cm). On a street with two lines of parked vehicles and two lanes of moving traffic, the
cumulative loss will be in the region of 80 cm. Clearly, these losses don’t materialise overnight; cars
sold today don’t suddenly replace all those sold previously. But these losses, which are being incurred
across Europe and beyond, are not less consequential because they are incremental.
Loss of vision and higher road safety risk
Expanding width has also enabled passenger vehicles, mainly SUVs, to become taller, which then
obstructs the view of the road for all road users, also known as reduced sight-lines.
Drivers in wider, higher SUVs also see less of the road space around them, with a larger blindspot in
particular to the front. The larger blindspots of wider and higher vehicles contribute both to a greater
incidence of collisions, and a higher rate of death and serious injury in this elevated number of
collisions.17
Vehicle blindspots can be informally measured by counting the number of children seated to the front
who the driver doesn’t see. The figure rises to 13 - 14 children in some cases (see image below). When
passing at close proximity, and all other things being equal, drivers of ever-wider SUVs are more likely
to strike mirrors, or worse
VIAS found that the risk of fatalities for pedestrians and cyclists struck in collisions increases with
higher vehicle fronts.18 More specifically, a 10 cm increase in the height of the vehicle front (from 80 cm
to 90 cm) is linked to a 30% rise in fatalities where a pedestrian or cyclist is struck in a collision.19
Overall, VIAS found that the average height of vehicle fronts has risen from 73 cm to 83 cm over the
past 20 years. To better protect vulnerable users, VIAS stresses that the trend to large, high-fronted
vehicles must be arrested
