The results of the latest study point to the spatial, safety and energy consequences of increasingly large vehicles, and researchers propose a size tax and dimensional restrictions for parking.
A new study by Transport & Environment (T&E) and Clean Cities highlights a worrying trend of ever-increasing car sizes, with new vehicles in Europe growing by an average of 1,2 centimetres in length and half a centimetre in height and width each year. This continuous growth in dimensions has been ongoing since 2000 and is putting increasing pressure on urban infrastructure. If manufacturers do not reverse this trend, the report estimates that cities will lose between 8,5 and 14 percent of their on-street parking spaces by 2040, which would mean around 100.000 fewer parking spaces in Berlin and London alone.
Larger cars not only compromise available space, but also have a direct impact on safety and energy consumption. Higher bonnets have been shown to cause more serious injuries in collisions with pedestrians and cyclists; if the trend continues, this could lead to an estimated 2.570 additional deaths among vulnerable road users by 2040. At the same time, larger and heavier vehicles inevitably require more energy, with the European electric vehicle fleet requiring an additional 22,5 terawatt hours of electricity per year, while internal combustion engine vehicles would consume over 100 million additional barrels of oil.
To curb this phenomenon, the report proposes strict regulatory measures, including a legal limit on the height of the engine hood to 85 cm and the width of the vehicle to 192 cm. The authors of the study also call for the introduction of taxes and variable parking fees that would be proportional to the dimensions of the vehicles, and recommend special incentives reserved exclusively for electric vehicles shorter than 4,20 meters. The implementation of these solutions will undoubtedly be challenging, as manufacturers generate significantly higher margins with larger models, and buyers have clearly preferred larger SUVs and crossovers for two decades.
