As more and more American-style SUVs appear on Australian roads, concerned residents are drawing attention to a potential safety risk the oversized vehicles can pose when parked in confined and busy CBD parking bays.
Delivery driver Matt Kennedy has shared with Yahoo News multiple photos taken in Melbourne’s CBD in recent months which he says highlight the danger posted to riders like him, as well as other motorists and even pedestrians.
Because the vehicles can struggle to fit inside parking spaces, they inevitably protrude into other bays, bike paths, or traffic lanes with towbars seen subtly dangling in the path of oncoming traffic, creating a potentially below eye-level obstruction.
Protruding towbars could do serious damage if passing road users accidentally got too close. Source: Supplied
“Drivers of large cars feel they’re entitled to the centre-road parking spots, regardless of who they inconvenience or the clear danger they present,” Matt told Yahoo News.
He is one of many Australians against the larger cars, calling them “little more than an ego trip” for the motorists who choose to drive them.
The City of Melbourne Council told Yahoo News that despite the potential hazard, the drivers pictured in these photos would likely avoid any fines but encouraged them to find more appropriate spaces to park where possible.
“Officers would use their discretion when encountering situations like this,” the council spokesperson said. “Generally speaking, we would not issue an infringement as the vehicle is parked as legally as possible (with the tyres in the parking bay).
“If we did, however, encounter a driver, we would encourage the driver to park elsewhere if possible.”
Another recent instance with an oversized ute in the city. Source: Facebook/Matt Kennedy
Belief that larger vehicles are ‘safer’ is debunked by expert
In addition to avoiding a luxury car import tax, a big incentive attracting Australian drivers to larger vehicles is the perception that they provide increased safety for those driving and riding in them.
However, this isn’t necessarily the case.
“It’s perceived as safer because you sit up higher,” Julian O’Shea, a lecturer from Monash University specialising in sustainable transport, explained. “But the taller vehicles, like large SUVs, actually are more likely to roll over than smaller vehicles, and they’re certainly more dangerous for anyone they may hit.”
“It’s an unfortunate trend, because there are a lot of negative effects of these vehicles. They take up more space, as you’ve seen, they cause more damage to roads because they’re heavier, and due to the heavier mass, they’re also more dangerous if they strike people, particularly pedestrians and cyclists.”
In 2000, 70 per cent of new cars sold in the country were small passenger vehicles. Twenty-five years later, SUVs and light commercial vehicles now make up 80 per cent of the market, according to The Conversation.
Calls for large vehicle owners to pay more for rego
There has been significant pushback against larger vehicles hitting Australian roads, and many believe infrastructure simply can’t accommodate this kind of vehicle. There have been discussions around larger vehicle owners paying more for inner-city parking or even for vehicle registration.
Larger vehicles often struggle to fit into standard parking bays and impose on other vehicles. Source: Reddit
Western Australia and New South Wales currently only consider the weight of a vehicle during registration, and Associate Professor Milad Haghani, who specialises in urban resilience at the University of Melbourne, believes the only way to achieve a “truly equitable registration fee model” would be to account for vehicle size and weight, as well as how often the vehicle is driven.
He previously told Yahoo News “the registration fee system is just not a fair and equitable one”, and called for a rego overhaul.
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