Stop SUVs for Vision Zero

London’s Vision Zero plan

In 2024, 3,696 people were killed or seriously injured on London’s roads. Each one is a tragedy, and each one was preventable. At least, that’s the motivating principle of London’s Vision Zero strategy, an ambitious goal to eliminate road deaths and serious injuries in the capital to zero by 2041.

Whilst the city has seen success in saving lives on the roads, a further 64 per cent reduction in fatalities from the 2024 baseline is needed to meet the 2030 interim target. A revised Vision Zero Action Plan 2 will soon be developed to meet this target, and London Assembly Member Caroline Russell has published a report including 25 recommendations for the Mayor to include in the new action plan.

We’re very pleased that recommendations to stop carspreading are included in the report.

Recommendation 6 calls on the Mayor and Transport for London to:

• work with the London boroughs to dissuade people from driving heavier, larger cars by using London-wide, weight-based parking surcharges for on-street resident and visitor parking.

• propose actions based on the evidence of the danger presented by larger, heavier cars such as:

  • a public awareness campaign to alert Londoners to the harm they pose.

  • a tobacco-style ban on SUV advertising – including hybrid, plug-in hybrid and electric SUVs on the TfL advertising estate.

In June this year the London Assembly called on Mayor Sadiq Khan to take action on carspreading, including by writing to the government in support of vehicle tax reform and the introduction of vehicle size limits.

Stop SUVs, save lives

A recent study on SUV road danger concluded that if all SUVs currently on the UK’s roads were replaced by small cars, overall deaths and serious injuries could be reduced by 4% and deaths and serious injuries amongst children under 9-years-old could be reduced by 35%.

Introducing weight-based parking charges ensures that drivers of large SUVs pay more than drivers of small cars. After the city of Paris tripled parking charges for SUVs in October 2024, numbers of SUVs in the city fell by two-thirds in just three months. Other European cities including Lyon, Bordeaux, Grenoble, Aachen and Koblenz have all introduced similar measures to curb SUV use.

SUV inequality

SUV ownership in London is highly stratified, with the largest, heaviest and most polluting SUVs typically being owned by households in wealthier areas, such as the SW1X postcode in Kensington and Chelsea.

However, across all modes of travel, people in the most deprived areas of London are more likely to be killed or seriously injured on the roads. People walking in the most deprived areas of London are more than twice as likely to be injured as those in the least deprived areas.

Race and ethnicity are also factors, with BAME Londoners more at risk, and children in this group being 1.5 times as likely to be killed or seriously injured on the roads than non-BAME children.

Feature image: Leo Murray.