It’s not always easy being the driver of an SUV. Because: No other car is as polarizing as the off-road vehicle, which is often referred to as a road tank. After higher penalties for traffic offenses for SUV drivers were discussed, it is now about a penalty tax.
When Toyota put the RAV4 on the road in the mid-1990s, the Japanese carmaker probably had no idea that the SUV would be one of the most popular vehicle classes among Germans many years later. The RAV4 is considered by many to be the birth of the sports SUV – that is, an SUV that is more at home in the city than off-road. And also in January 2023, the SUV was the most popular car class among new car buyers . Nevertheless, the SUV polarizes like no other model. A court wanted to impose higher penalties on SUV drivers last July. The verdict followed in October . And now there are calls for a penalty tax.
SUVS CAUSE PROBLEMS: CITIES REACT
They are heavier and – what is even more important – significantly larger than the compact class or even sedans: SUVs. And they are increasingly becoming a thorn in the side of cities. Because where there is already little space, more and more off-road vehicles are squeezing through the streets. Parking spaces are becoming too small, streets too narrow and there is less and less space for cyclists and pedestrians. Helmut Dedy, Managing Director of the German Association of Cities and Towns, also knows this and tells the Stuttgarter Zeitung : “The trend in cars obviously only goes in one direction: bigger and heavier.”
And according to him, that does not fit into a time when people are discussing saving energy and space, climate protection and resource protection. For a better quality of life in the cities, fewer and not bigger cars are needed, according to the managing director of the association of independent and district towns in Germany. So there is simply no room for even more SUVs.
ARE HIGHER TAXES THE SOLUTION?
That is why Dedy calls for “the actual costs for parking and driving to be assigned to the large vehicles”. In plain language, this means: If you drive an SUV, you should pay more. After all, there is something absurd about adapting the parking conditions to the ever larger cars. And that ultimately costs money. A cost that falls on everyone’s shoulders, whether they drive an SUV or a small car. SUV drivers don’t just have a problem parking, which they usually don’t even know about . The cars are also often wider than other models. And the width of the vehicle is particularly important on motorway construction sites. Here we explain the problem .
In addition , statistics show that an SUV driver is 23 percent more likely than other classes of vehicles to collide with a pedestrian when making a left turn.
