Offroad cars, onroad menace

4x4s in the City

Publication date: 31/03/2006

Summary
The so-called Sports Utility Vehicle (SUV), better known in the UK as the 4x4, has become a common sight in our city centres. As sales of these oversize family run-arounds continue to increase, concern is escalating over their impact on the climate and the danger they pose to pedestrians and other road users.

While the urban SUV driver might be irresponsible, the real villains are the car manufacturers who market ever bigger, heavier, and more polluting cars. This report, by a respected academic from one of the country's top automotive industry economics centres, outlines how and why car manufacturers design and promote cars that are inefficient and so totally unsuited to the urban environment in which they are predominantly used.