A recent review of US collision data has proven that big, blunt-nosed SUVs are making pedestrians more likely to die in regular traffic, supporting mounting calls in some areas to outlaw these enormous vehicles.
According to a November study by the US Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), automobiles with “especially tall front ends”—those with a bonnet height of more than 100 cm—are 45% more likely to result in deaths than lower cars with sloping bonnets.
IIHS President David Harkey remarked, “Some of today’s vehicles are pretty intimidating when you’re passing in front of them in a pedestrian crossing.” “These findings confirm that our intuition was right: cars with more aggressive styling can actually cause more damage.”
After examining 17,897 collisions involving a single passenger car and a single pedestrian and figuring out the front-end measures of the involved cars, IHS researchers came to their conclusions.
The IIHS considered variables that potentially influence the chance of a death and excluded cars with pedestrian autonomous emergency braking systems in order to control for other variables. These included the pedestrian’s age and gender, as well as the speed limit.
According to Wen Hu, a senior research transportation engineer at IIHS, who is also the study’s principal author, automakers could easily alter their designs to reduce risks to pedestrian safety.
By angling the grille and hood (bonnet) to produce a sloping profile and lowering the front end of the hood, manufacturers can reduce the risk of their cars colliding with pedestrians. These enormous, blocky fronts serve no practical use.
The climatic issue of SUVs using more fossil fuels has also fueled anti-SUV movements, which have been increasingly vocal in Western cities in recent years.
In European towns, an initiative known as Tyre Extinguishers has been releasing the air from SUV tyres. In the meantime, Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo is getting ready for a vote on raising parking costs for SUVs in February of next year.
According to a statement from the city council, the goal of this vote is to urge automakers to stop the “race towards gigantism, which doesn’t align with living quality in the city.”
Although the cost of additional parking for the bigger cars has not yet been disclosed, Paris officials have acknowledged that it would be “significant.”
