Green campaigner Siân Berry says legislation should warn people what 4x4 vehicles do to the environment and how they are more likely to kill pedestrians

ACCORDING to a recent YouGov poll, seven out of 10 Londoners experience that feeling of helpless fury when you see a mammoth Range Rover, BMW X5 or Porsche Cayenne barging its way through our congested streets.
These monster 4x4s block the view for other motorists, squeeze cyclists onto the kerb, and harass pedestrians, all the time spewing out twice as many chemicals as ordinary cars and making London look more like a city under occupation than a pleasant place to live.
But I am helpless no longer because I have some ‘offensive weapons’ of my own. Leaflets which, at first glance, appear to be genuine parking tickets, but which in fact carry an important message: “Poor Vehicle Choice”.
When I find an urban 4x4 parked in my environment, I slip one under the windscreen and quietly move on. It’s fun, but I also hope it will help stop London going the way of Los Angeles, where half of new cars are now Sport Utility Vehicles (SUVs).
It all started a year ago. As a Green Party member in Highgate, I knew about the impact of our personal transport choices and, as a medical writer, I also knew about the 24,000 annual UK deaths from poor air quality, mainly due to road vehicles.
For those of us who need a car, the choice of model is crucial to the impact we have.
Which is why I was baffled to see increasing numbers of large 4x4s driving past me at the bus stop. So, before I resorted to tearing down adverts for cars that “take on the urban jungle”, I decided to put my engineering degree and writing experience to work, seeking out evidence that the 100,000 Londoners who own 4x4s cannot have seen and passing it on to them in spoof penalty charge notices.
What I found was frightening. Government data on fuel economy showed that the average 4x4 gets somewhere between 12 and 18 miles per gallon in town, far below the average family car at 25mpg. Diesel models, which save on carbon dioxide, emit far greater amounts of other chemicals, especially nitrogen dioxide and particulates – I was starting to realise why today more children carry an asthma inhaler than a copy of the Beano.
Insurance industry figures gave sobering facts about accidents. Many people believe they are safer in a big, tall car, but urban 4x4s are in fact involved in 25 per cent more crashes than ordinary cars and do far more damage. Pedestrians come off worst in their encounters with these beasts – only one model scores more than one out of five for pedestrian safety in Euro NCAP (European New Car Assessment Programme) crash tests, and their blind spots are legendary.
Putting these figures into the tickets, I also added some alternatives – starting with walking and cycling, which are both pollution-free and good for you. It’s ironic to see concern over obesity when at the same time we have more kids driven to school than any other European country.
The first design (‘Carbon’ for Camden) was printed using donations from local campaigners, and 1,000 tickets were sent out to activists last November. But it wasn’t until this summer that the campaign gained momentum: a group of us formed the Alliance Against Urban 4x4s to unite community groups, politicians and individuals to lobby for concrete changes in policy.
Our aims are realistic and we are not seeking an outright ban. First of all we want to see higher congestion charges for big 4x4s to recover some of the costs to our city. The technology is there to exempt electric cars so, according to London Assembly members, targeting just the biggest 4x4s should be simple.
We also want to see escalating road taxes for the most polluting cars, as well as a ban on advertising 4x4s in the mainstream media. We have no problem with farmers and others with a real need for all-wheel drive, but promoting a three-ton workhorse as a family car is simply not on.
The response to the campaign has been extraordinary. In just a few weeks, hundreds of people have signed a petition to Mayor Ken Livingstone and transport secretary Alistair Darling. We now have 80,000 spoof tickets covering six London boroughs, as well as generic versions that work anywhere, and groups are out ticketing in towns and cities across the UK.
Organisations such as Transport 2000 have added their weight to our calls for regulation, and a real public debate is starting. We have been in most newspapers and on radio and TV. Our picket of a Kensington Landrover dealership merited a whole page in the Sunday Telegraph.
Are 4x4 drivers listening? The alliance postbag shows that there are two camps: in one are blokes who would probably own a fat-engined car no matter what shape was fashionable, who tell us “I know where you live” and send fruitily worded abuse. The other consists mainly of parents who are taken in by the feeling of security but who haven’t been told the facts. It is these people, particularly mothers, who often admit to the disadvantages of driving a big 4x4 and seem to be the ones we can reach.
Whichever side of the debate you are on, visit our website (www.stopurban4x4s.org.uk), look at our research and – if you are one of the 70 per cent who support measures to stop urban 4x4s – find out what you can do to help.
n Siân Berry is the co-founder of the Alliance Against Urban 4x4s and Green Party PPC for Hampstead and Highgate.