Overview
- The Transport & Environment report published Wednesday finds average new-car length in Europe has grown about 1.2 cm per year since 2000 and bonnet height about 0.5 cm per year.
- If that linear trend continues to 2040, T&E estimates European cities could lose roughly 8.5 to 14 percent of on-street parking spaces, with Berlin facing a loss measured in tens of thousands of spots.
- The study links taller, larger fronts to worse crash outcomes and projects up to about 2,500 additional adult deaths and 79 additional child deaths across Europe by 2040 compared with a Right-Sizing scenario.
- The German NGO Deutsche Umwelthilfe has urged binding size caps — for example a maximum bonnet height of 85 cm, width of 192 cm and five-metre length for small cars — while some cities have begun size- or weight-based parking fees such as Paris and Zürich.
- T&E and others tie the growth to rising SUV market share and higher average CO2 for new cars, and they propose a ‘Right-Sizing’ pathway plus taxes or parking fees by size or weight as policy tools to protect space, safety and emissions targets.