Road Safety Strategy takes on ‘carspreading’

Recognition of hazards posed by large cars marks a success of campaigning by the SUV Alliance, says James Ward

Following campaigning from the SUV Alliance, the newly published Road Safety Strategy, the government’s first such strategy in a decade, includes commitments to “understand safety concerns regarding increasing vehicle size”.

This is very welcome news and marks a success for the last year of campaigning by the SUV Alliance to raise the profile of ‘carspreading’ as a significant road safety issue.

The strategy notes (page 32) that: “There are concerns that larger vehicles, particularly the emerging trend for increased bonnet height in SUVs, may have a detrimental safety impact on vulnerable road users, particularly pedestrians, cyclists and children.”

It goes on to recognise the work of Cardiff City Council to introduce higher parking fees for heavier cars, in an effort to discourage the use of SUVs and large cars in the city.

Evidence of the danger posed by SUVs and large cars has amassed quickly over the last 12 months, with multiple studies published confirming that such vehicles are more dangerous to vulnerable road users - like pedestrians and cyclists - and that that danger is a consequence of vehicle size, weight, and design features such as raised bonnets.

The SUV Alliance welcomes the government’s recognition of these issues and the urgent need to review vehicle design as part of wider road safety reforms, to achieve the goals of the Safe Systems approach adopted by the strategy. 

We will continue to offer our advice and guidance to the government on this topic. 

The strategy places emphasis on the mandatory adoption of 18 vehicle safety technologies, including Automatic Emergency Braking, speed assistance and lane keeping assistance. Whilst these are welcome and important vehicle safety measures, we note that the addition of extra technology is one reason why cars have become larger in recent years, making those cars more dangerous ultimately undermining the very purpose of those technologies. 

We also caution that vehicle safety technology (also called “active safety” measures) should not be substituted for improvements to basic vehicle design (“passive safety”), and that vehicle safety technologies have been shown to be unreliable in the real world. Both active and passive safety must be brought together, with the aim of all cars becoming smaller and safer to all road users. 

James Ward is co-director of Ad-free Cities and a coordinator of the SUV Alliance