Barbara Stoll, Founder and Director of Clean Cities at Transport and Environment discusses the trend of autobesity, referring to the global rise in sales of large, heavy, and powerful SUVs. This trend has led to an increase in fuel consumption, road accidents, and congestion in urban areas. Cities like Paris are implementing measures such as higher parking fees for SUVs and investing in public transport and active mobility infrastructure to discourage the use of these vehicles.
00:00Barbara Stoll is the founder and director of Clean Cities campaign at Transport and Environment.
00:06Great to have you on the program. We've been looking at this micro car.
00:10It looks a little bit like a toy, but I want to talk to you about the fad for bigger and bigger cars.
00:15We've been hearing this word, autobesity. What is it and what are the side effects?
00:22Yeah, thank you so much for having me.
00:24So autobesity, also known as car spreading, as we've been talking about it,
00:30is the global trends of cars getting bigger, heavier and more powerful in the form of SUVs or sports utility vehicles and to some extent pickups.
00:39And what we're seeing is that in Europe, SUV sales have ballooned.
00:44So whilst in 2010, they represented about 11, 11 and a half percent of all new sales, they represented 55, over 55 percent in 2024.
00:56So that's like a five-fold increase.
00:58And that's even worse in the UK, where they represent about 60 percent of all new sales.
01:03And of course, this growth physically shows up in these vehicles, because what we're seeing is that the front of the vehicles is rising one centimeter every two years.
01:13And that's also true for the width of the vehicle.
01:15And so basically, these giant SUVs are like rolling us out of our cities, and they're simply really, really bad for our cities and the environment.
01:25If it's bigger, it's going to cost more to fill up.
01:27If it's a petrol car, it's going to need a bigger battery or need to charge more frequently if it's electric.
01:33So what about the impact on road safety or on congestion?
01:38I mean, it does sound like you're not much of a fan.
01:40Yes, it's not a secret.
01:44We're not a fan.
01:46Absolutely.
01:46So they are absolutely more dangerous.
01:49So a 10 percent increase in the height of the front of the vehicle means about a 30 percent higher risk of someone getting fatally injured in a collision with an SUV.
02:01So that's like huge.
02:02But not only that, but when there's, for example, a collision between two cars, and if one is like twice as heavy as the other, the people in the lighter car are three times more likely to be seriously injured than if the two cars were around the same weight.
02:16So you can see why this is a huge problem when it comes to road danger.
02:20Not only that, and of course, we've already heard this, but they just take up more space.
02:23They're just bigger.
02:24They're heavier.
02:25They're more powerful.
02:26And what they do is they squeeze the rest of us out of our cities.
02:30So basically, they make pavements really difficult to navigate.
02:33They don't fit in traditional parking spaces anymore.
02:36And they really physically take away space from things that are also needed in cities, such as greenery, such as, you know, wider pavements for pedestrians and wheelchairs and buggies to fit.
02:48They take away space from cycle lanes.
02:51And basically, they take away space from all the alternatives that humans need in order to get around in densely populated urban areas.
02:58They also pollute more.
03:00So that's already been talked about.
03:01You know, they have 20% more fuel than an average car.
03:04And they're really more expensive as well.
03:07So they cost about 59% more than a normal hatchback.
03:11But so many cities seem to be on this drive to be cleaner and greener and to push cars out of cities.
03:17And that's why we have congestion charges.
03:19We're hearing Paris now imposing these huge parking charges on the larger vehicles, on the SUVs.
03:26But what about more investment in public transport?
03:29What about alternatives and incentives to drivers so that they're all on the same page?
03:35Absolutely.
03:36And so you need both.
03:38So you need sticks and you need carrots.
03:40What Paris has done is absolutely transformational, not only in this area, but in other areas as well.
03:45And basically, the result of tripling the parking charges for SUVs means there's two-thirds less SUVs now on Paris's streets, which is amazing.
03:55So other cities should follow suit.
03:57But not only that, of course, you have to provide incentives for people to be able to have and take advantage of the alternatives.
04:04So better and cleaner and more accessible public transport, better active mobility infrastructure, meaning basically cycling pathways, pedestrianization and better pavements.
04:16And also, you know, car clubs, electric car sharing.
04:19So basically, you need to give people many alternatives in order so that they don't feel so attached to their cars.
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