Four-wheel drive vehicles (a UK term for sport utility vehicles or SUVs) should be banned from the school run and trips to the supermarket, a British MP said on Tuesday, according to an Associated Press (AP) report.
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The Liberal Democrat environment spokesman, Norman Baker, said off-road vehicles intimidated other road users and damaged the environment. He also urged manufacturers to market four-wheel drives more responsibly, AP said.
The MP said his constituency of Lewes, East Sussex, suffered from a heavy traffic problem where cyclists and pedestrians were often forced up against the wall by four-wheel drives, AP said.
“Manufacturers have identified that there are only so many vehicles they can sell to farmers and others who would legitimately use such vehicles,” Baker reportedly told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
“The slogans which they are using to sell their vehicles are aimed at urban users. There are real questions whether or not someone needs a two-and-a-half tonne, 22-gallon vehicle to nip down to Tesco’s or take the kids to school. The consequences of ever-increasing use of these vehicles means that other road users often feel intimidated – pedestrians and cyclists certainly do – use of fossil fuels increases dramatically, and our small urban towns, particularly historic towns, are being overwhelmed in some cases by these vehicles,” Baker reportedly said.
“The whole point of these vehicles and the way they’re marketed is to give the impression to those who buy them that they somehow are getting more confidence, they’re getting a personality boost, they’re getting an opportunity to fight through the ‘urban jungle’. “That’s the sort of language these manufacturers use. People who use them should think ‘if it’s never going to leave tarmac, and always going to be used just for school runs, is it really the appropriate vehicle?” Baker added, according to Associated Press.
