SUVs are firmly at the top of the list of preferences for millions of drivers in the EU, but a report published by the European Federation for Transport and the Environment warns that the increase in SUVs on European roads will make finding parking even more difficult in the coming years.
The report was written about on Wednesday by the Athens News Agency (Kyriakos Parasidis), pointing out that European cities will lose between 8.5% and 14% of the current parking spaces on their streets by 2040 if the size of new cars continues to increase at the same rate.
The report by the European Transport and Environment Federation showed that, due to the increase in car size, London is projected to lose between 72,000 and 118,000 street parking spaces by 2040. Berlin faces similar losses of 71,000 to 117,000 seats, while Rome could see a reduction of 58,000 to 95,000 seats.
Significant capacity reductions are also expected in Madrid (up to 41,000 seats), Warsaw (up to 17,000 seats) and Paris (up to 12,000 seats). Every year the average length of new cars sold increases by 1.2 centimeters, according to the report republished by APE, which analyzes the increase in vehicles since 2000. Their total height and width increased by 0.5 cm per year.
Research shows that despite the fact that families are decreasing, automakers have abandoned the production of small cars to make higher profits than larger vehicles.
On the other hand, the uncontrolled expansion of the size of cars has serious consequences for road safety, as it is considered to increase the deaths of vulnerable road users (pedestrians, cyclists, motorcyclists and electric scooters). Continued sales of this popular category could lead to the death of an additional 2,500 adults and 79 children on Europe's roads between 2026 and 2040, the survey says. According to it, 40% more children who walk could be killed in road accidents by 2040, due to the increase in the volume of vehicles. The increase in the height of the bonnet, which is projected to reach an average of 86.2 cm by 2040, is a particular risk for children, since they are thus at greater risk of being hit on the head or chest due to their height.
The European Transport and Environment Federation proposes that there should be European standards so that new cars sold from 2036 have a hood height limit of 85 cm and a car width limit of 1.92 meters.
