A short letter to long vehicles

Signed: Grumpy from Brixton

Call us grumpy, but going around our local neighbourhood has been somewhat blighted recently by the increasing number of enormous cars*. What used to be a large family car or hatchback now looks miniscule. Remind you of coffee sizes in certain establishments, wine measures, restaurant portion sizes…?

We mentioned a few weeks back that Lambeth is planning a consultation on so called car-spreading (we may not be naming it exactly as Lambeth intend to). What can councils do? Paris recently introduced increased parking fees for SUVs, with strong public support. Particularly for on street parking where larger vehicles restrict road use for others - surely there is something that can be done? If you feel strongly, why not raise it with your local councillor?

But why?

Just to remember why… Firstly safety - the increased risk of a pedestrian or cyclist dying if hit by one of these vehicle, especially if a child is hit. And air quality - they burn more fuel, and, if electric, produce more particulates due to their weight. And then the indirect impact - more people worried about cycling and other active travel leads to more vehicles and more emissions. Lots of data and more in this handy leaflet from Clean Cities campaign.

What’s wrong with this picture? Image courtesy of Clean Cities campaign

So what else makes us grumpy? Ok, we might be pushing it here but: ice cream! (Cue lots of readers unsubscribing…!) In particular, ice cream vans running their engines, often next to kids playgrounds or park entrances. Idling (leaving your engine running while parked) is illegal so why do ice cream van drivers get away with it? Well, they need the power on to keep the ice cream cold.

So are councils addressing this in any way? Not really - as far as we can see. Camden went for a ban over five years ago but not much has happened since. We found some reports from two years ago of Greenwich considering banning, but couldn’t discern whether they actually did. If any readers want to update us, please shout! We know that Lambeth has been trying to include more electric charging points in parks for icecream vans - but it’s very much carrot and no stick.

Sneezing through summer

What else does summer bring? (Apart from long days, picnics and trips to the seaside - we don’t want to be all doom and gloom!) Unfortunately for many - hay fever. We only learnt recently that hay fever can be exacerbated by air pollution. This article explains why. It means that, although pollen counts in cities are typically lower than the countryside, hay fever prevalence is higher. If anyone needed another reason to tackle pollution!

*Always trying to see the other side of the argument, Louise has been recalling her time in Addis Ababa in 2013, where it was the norm for diplomats to travel around the city in 4x4s. In fact, Louise had a saloon as a hire car for her family (perfectly decent but certainly looked a bit out of place at Embassy events). However, she was ferried around in a (what was at that time) enormous car between the Embassy and the African Union, occasionally ripping her skirt trying to get in/up to it. Yes there was the odd pothole but was this really needed? It certainly helped with the feeling of being an untouchable elite… Contrast with her visit to Kathmandu in 2010 when the Embassy was leading the way in using small (2 seater) electric cars to get around the city - very sensible for the tiny winding roads there, and contributing minimally to Nepal’s air pollution problems.