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By Professor John Robertson OBA,In the Guardian today:
The number of giant cars in England’s cities has increased tenfold in recent years, according to researchers, who warn the vehicles are taking up excessive public space and posing a threat to public safety.
Analysis published by Clean Cities has found SUVs have gone from 3% to 30% of existing cars in the past two decades. In London, the number of SUVs has increased from about 80,000 in 2002 to about 800,000 in 2023.
Campaigners are calling for Paris-style parking charges to be applied to major cities including London, Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Leeds, Liverpool and Manchester. They say this will discourage people from taking up excessive amounts of space with big cars.
I can’t find the data for Scotland, but my own local suburbia, as I walk the dog, I see many enormous black ‘roadweillers‘, often driven by otherwise puny dads coming back from the school run and affecting black baseball caps with extra long peaks to further compensate for what I suspect is microphallus syndrome.
On BBC Reporting Scotland across Scottish media, on July 7th 2023, the report of a child being struck by an SUV, as reported by Police Scotland:
Appeal after child struck by car on Tantallon Road, Glasgow – Road policing officers are appealing for information following a collision involving a pedestrian and a car in Shawlands, Glasgow on Thursday, 27 February, 2025. Around 9am, officers were called to a report of a child struck by a car on Tantallon Road.
Emergency services attended and the four-year-old girl was taken to the Royal Hospital for Children where hospital staff describe her condition as critical. The female driver of the BMW X1 did not require medical treatment. Sergeant Ally Wright said: “Our enquiries are ongoing to establish the full circumstances of this incident and I would urge any witnesses or anyone with information to come forward.
“I’m also keen to speak to any drivers who were in the area at the time and may have dashcam footage which has captured something of significance.”
This has reminded me of something, not directly relating to Scottish independence, that has concerned me for years – the differential death rate when someone is hit by an SUV with it’s high, more rigid, front end compared with that where it is a standard car or even van, where the point of impact is lower and where bonnets have been softened to reduce injuries.
The evidence is in, yet SUVs, unnecessary in urban or on-road settings, are still with us everywhere, on suburban roads, in supermarket carparks and near schools.
The evidence:
From Towards Data Science in January 2023:
So are SUVs and pickup trucks more dangerous to pedestrians? Yes. The logistic regression models show that SUVs are 16% more likely to cause incapacitating injuries and 36% more likely to kill pedestrians than smaller cars. Pickup trucks are 33% more likely to cause incapacitating injury and 108% (more than twice as likely!) to kill pedestrians.https://towardsdatascience.com/suvs-are-killing-people-de6ce08bac3d
The above research did not consider the probable, to me, factor – height. The smaller you are, the more likely the bumper will strike you in the chest or even head.
From the peer-reviewed Journal of Safety Research in September 2022:
Results suggest that children are eight times more likely to die when struck by a SUV compared to those struck by a passenger car.https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0022437522000810?via%3Dihub
Anecdotal, I know, but I once witnessed a drunk hit by a Vauxhall Zafira people carrier with a low bumper and soft bonnet. It hit his legs, and deposited him on the bonnet. He rolled off, got up, took a second to regain a little balance, then walked off without even looking behind him.
What could the Scottish Government do? Not a lot, I agree. Any new laws like those proposed in Paris and London would need UK Government cooperation and there’s little chance of that even before a Reform UK government. Low emission zones only affect the older SUVs.
Talking-up Scotland 'Albatraz' 
Yep, Scotland is at the mercy of the EngGovs’ rules on safety etc. There are so many SUV’s in Edinburgh it’s crazy and most of the roads are too narrow to accomodate so many for parking.
Some are more like tanks than cars!!
Also they must have more impact on road surfaces and of course Edinburgh city roads are in a seriously dangerous state thanks to the Lab/Tory coalition council not bothering to repair them. They waste money on resurfacing long stretches of road that absolutely do not need it. I have seen that happen. Also pavements, they recently replaced a pavement directly outside a large church, all very nice and expensive stone not your normal boring slabs, but walk beyond the entrance and watch you don’t trip on the loose paving!
SUV’s and pick up trucks, should have to pay higher road tax, I presume they do not.
Ps, did you know that tarMAC was invented by a Scot? As were so many of the worlds innovations and inventions.
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