SUVs should be banned from built-up areas in Ireland, according to a leading environmentalist.
SUV sales are now 13 percentage points above the EU average in Ireland, according to data from the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association.
On Lunchtime Live this morning journalist and environmentalist John Gibbons warned that Ireland’s streets were never designed for US-style big cars.
He said Ireland is too quick to jump on ‘American ideals’.
"A lot of our cities and towns are based on a medieval framework, these were designed for horses and carts,” he said.
"Maybe it's our position between Europe and America, we tend to adopt American ideas here very quickly and very strongly.
"In Europe there's a trend, especially in the urban areas, towards smaller cars.
"That isn't because people particularly like smaller cars, it's because they make sense inside cities."
He said he recently come across an illegally parked SUV blocking the footpath in Dún Laoghaire.
"I was walking up the road, and I basically encountered one of the fairly large SUVs, and it also had a ball hitch," he said.
"It was illegally parked in the sense that it was between the positions; it was fairly close to the maximum that it could go forward, yet it blocked up slightly over half the footpath.
"With the ball hitch protruding from that, especially in the dark, it presents a little bit of a trip hazard for people using the footpath.
"It kind of got me thinking; the problem here really is just we haven't designed our cities and towns around these trucks.
"If you go back to 2010, barely one-in-10 of our vehicles on the road were SUVs.
"The latest statistics on this are that we now have approaching 60% of new cars sold in Ireland in 2022 are SUVs.
"That is the highest percentage in the entire EU 27."
'An SUV saved my life'
Another caller, Damien, told the show he believes an SUV saved his life two years ago.
"My SUV, I believe, saved my life, because I lost a front wheel in a collision from a driver that was asleep, according to the Guards," he said.
"He crossed the road and he took the wheel off.
"I had some trauma after it but thank God, I survived it and so did my passenger – so I would speak highly for them.
"The Guard that arrived, he said 'One second more and that car travelling about 50 miles an hour would have impacted your side door and you probably wouldn't be here."
Damien said his SUV is also offering a better fuel alternative.
"I have a biofuel alternative to diesel and that should make them very [much] cleaner than they used to be," he said.
"I'll be buying biofuel from now on and I'll be holding on to my SUV.
"I don't see there's any problem with an SUV overhanging the footpath any more than anything else".
'High centre of gravity'
Mr Gibbons said SUVs only give the illusion of safety.
"Their high centre of gravity means they're far more likely to roll over in a collision," he said.
"One of the most dangerous things that can happen in a collision is if your vehicle flips.
"SUVs are far more likely to flip; if they get clipped from the side, over they go.
"That's the danger with SUVs, so all the bulk suddenly comes against you because of your high centre of gravity.
"On average SUVs are far more dangerous to other road users, but they also kill their own drivers and passengers with a higher frequency than regular cars," he added.
People Before Profit TD Paul Murphy has previously branded SUVs as “anti-social monstrosities” that should be banned from Irish towns and cities.
Last year, Green Party Councillor Janet Horner warned they were causing a "significant hazard" in cities, while UCD Professor Aidan Regan called for them to be “taxed out of existence”.
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