While walking, cycling or driving, have you ever felt intimidated by large vehicles? What about the term “might is right” – or is it? Should we as a society be supporting the increasing number of large vehicles on our roads? In Europe, which have the safest roads in the world, they don’t have the surge of larger private vehicles we are seeing in New Zealand. Do you feel, as I do, that the increased proportion of larger private vehicles (utes and SUVs) and risky driving behaviour is making travelling less safe, especially as a pedestrian?
Despite the need for us all to respond to climate change, there has been a surge in SUVs and utes on our roads (In 2018, two-thirds of New Zealand’s new vehicles were SUVs or utes). While this might improve the safety of people inside such vehicles especially on the open road, it has the opposite effect on many other road users’ safety, and on the environment, with 30 to 50% more emissions than a small/medium sized vehicle (see below).
What do safety ratings really mean?
Many of these vehicles are rated as 4 or 5 star (the top rating) for vehicle occupants. As pointed out by my colleague Lewis Martin in his blog ‘safe but more likely to kill…’ there is a major mass difference between these vehicles and smaller and compact vehicles. So, when crashes occur between small and large vehicles, smaller/ lower mass vehicle occupants are much more likely to come to harm, even in urban areas. The vehicle star rating only applies to the occupants of a vehicle not the damage they can do to other road users. Is that right?
Even at low speeds, the bonnet height and heavy mass of these vehicles means they pose a higher risk to pedestrians, cyclists and other unprotected road users. While these vehicles may be required for tradespeople and farmers (although one could argue that a van can do the same job), the general public is increasingly purchasing these vehicles and using them for trips that can easily be done by a standard car.
Climate change and road safety
To reach our climate change targets, we need safer road environments for both alternative forms of travel and occupants of compact and efficient vehicles. We need cities that are focused on the movement of people, not the movement of cars. We seem to be heading in the wrong direction where larger mass private vehicles are creating unsafe urban environments. While lower speed limits and safer roads are part of the solution, we also need fewer of these higher mass vehicles in our cities, so we can all be safer.
So how do we discourage the purchase of these vehicles and encourage the purchase of compact, lower emission vehicles. Firstly, we need to acknowledge that many families only have one car they use for city and country (high speed) travel. While increasing government tax on larger vehicles, such as utes (like the ute tax), is one option, another more equitable option is to provider better alternatives to owning a large vehicle. “Mobility as a service” (MaaS) rental schemes for these vehicles for use on holidays is one option. Alternatively, providing better access to public transport and safe cycling facilities for urban trips means people will be able to use their larger vehicle less often for trips around town.
Read the first blog in this series leading up to the Australasian Road Safety Conference: ‘Achieving vision zero while saving the planet’
Shane Turner
Technical Director, Road Safety