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Tyre Extinguishers target SUVs on home turf of the ‘Chelsea Tractor’

Campaign to have 4x4s banned from cities undertakes latest direct action in London’s affluent Cheyne Walk

Tyre Extinguishers, the direct action group calling for SUVs to be banned from cities, have struck again, targeting 30 vehicles in London’s upscale Cheyne Walk area in the district of the capital that gave 4x4s their ‘Chelsea Tractor’ nickname.

Members of the group, whom we spoke to last month for an episode of the road.cc Podcast, use dried lentils to deflate tyres of the vehicles to draw attention to their campaign.

They cite research which has found that the collective global emissions produced by SUVs would see the vehicles outranked by only five countries around the world in terms of the pollution they produce.

The group has also highlighted that within the UK, more Range Rovers are registered in the Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea than in any other local authority area, accounting for one in 10 cars there., and thatn across the country as a whole, three in four SUVs are registered to addresses in towns and cities.

Tyre Extinguishers spokesperson Marion Walker said: “These people live in the dead centre of London with access to copious amounts of public transport. There is no need to own a massive polluting SUV here.”

The group, which has no centralised structure and is active around the world, encourages people to get involved with its campaign by undertaking their own direct actions and leaving a leaflet that can be downloaded from their website to explain to owners of the vehicles why their tyres have been deflated and highlight the effect of SUVs on the planet.

It adds that SUVs are specifically targeted because:

• SUVs are a climate disaster

• SUVs cause air pollution

• SUVs are dangerous

• SUVs are unnecessary.

Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.

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123 comments

Avatar
Chris Hayes | 1 year ago
2 likes

Looking at their rudimentary website it seems that it's not just SUVs they are targetting: 

"Hybrids and electric cars are fair game. We cannot electrify our way out of the climate crisis - there are not enough rare earth metals to replace everyone’s car and the mining of these metals causes suffering. Plus, the danger to other road users still stands, as does the air pollution (PM 2.5 pollution is still produced from tyres and brake pads)."

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chrisonabike replied to Chris Hayes | 1 year ago
0 likes

A hybrid or electric SUV is a SUV.  Too many TLAs but do you mean an ICE SUV?

(And yes - I did see this and was momentarily surprised.)

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Chris Hayes replied to chrisonabike | 1 year ago
1 like

Well it says 'hybrid and electric cars'...so not even SUVs....just vehicles in general that use precious earths.... I wonder if I should start an anarcho-syndicalist movement targeting housing with less than an EPC rating of B?  They certain emit more CO2 than my car which is parked 25 days a month... 

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Rich_cb replied to Chris Hayes | 1 year ago
0 likes

Seems entirely legit.

If you just target expensive houses road.cc might even give you some coverage.

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hawkinspeter replied to Chris Hayes | 1 year ago
2 likes

Chris Hayes wrote:

Looking at their rudimentary website it seems that it's not just SUVs they are targetting: 

"Hybrids and electric cars are fair game. We cannot electrify our way out of the climate crisis - there are not enough rare earth metals to replace everyone’s car and the mining of these metals causes suffering. Plus, the danger to other road users still stands, as does the air pollution (PM 2.5 pollution is still produced from tyres and brake pads)."

That's the elephant in the room with EVs - how do we recycle the batteries when they lose their effectiveness?

https://hackaday.com/2021/07/15/recycling-will-be-key-to-the-electric-vehicle-future/

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eburtthebike replied to hawkinspeter | 1 year ago
2 likes

hawkinspeter wrote:

"Hybrids and electric cars are fair game. We cannot electrify our way out of the climate crisis - there are not enough rare earth metals to replace everyone’s car and the mining of these metals causes suffering. Plus, the danger to other road users still stands, as does the air pollution (PM 2.5 pollution is still produced from tyres and brake pads)."

That's the elephant in the room with EVs - how do we recycle the batteries when they lose their effectiveness?

[/quote]And the other elephant, congestion, which EVs will make worse.

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hawkinspeter replied to eburtthebike | 1 year ago
0 likes

eburtthebike wrote:

And the other elephant, congestion, which EVs will make worse.

Only if you think purely in terms of cars. E-scooters and e-bikes are also electric vehicles, but they should help with congestion. Also, as they are significantly smaller, the recycling problem is substantially reduced.

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Chris Hayes replied to eburtthebike | 1 year ago
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I've always thought that EVs are fine until everyone wants one....then you have grid issues.  The counter-argument is, of course, that EVs can sell energy back to the grid when not in use - and the batteries can be used in static power packs once they're no longer capable of powering a vehicle. But that's the future. 

We've been considering an EV for a while now (well, a Tesla as no one else has a supercharger network), but our driving patterns - long infrequent journeys with a car full of weekend and holiday acoutrements - don't really lend themselves to it....

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Secret_squirrel replied to Chris Hayes | 1 year ago
0 likes

We're in exactly the same boat.  Barely any use for a car during the week apart from emergency school runs, 40 weekends a year need 4 seat kid transporter, 10 weekends a year we need a Estate/SUV class boot space to transport 2 kids and 2 dogs 300 miles for various leisure and family occasions.

We currently have an ICE estate!

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Chris Hayes replied to Secret_squirrel | 1 year ago
0 likes

Exactly that...plus bikes, canoes, tents, etc. and the coffee machine when we go to France on holiday!  Just popped down to the garage to have a look around one of my neighbour's Tesla X.... they don't wear well....May as well run mine into the ground now...or until someone bans it. Or makes me put a sail on it. 

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Rich_cb replied to hawkinspeter | 1 year ago
1 like

Nissan are reselling used batteries as home storage.

They can also be dissolved and then recycled apparently but I dread to think the chemicals involved in that.

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chrisonabike replied to Rich_cb | 1 year ago
0 likes

Yep - in theory the older lead-acid were at least entirely recyclable.  Unfortunately - like most "mainstream" technologies - loss rates even in more "controlled" environments were significant and lead is not a good pollutant to deal with.  However although lithium is much nicer the recycling issue is not practical as yet and you still get some bonus heavy metals with them.

Trawling tech history a power "dead end" at the time was compressed air - used for both static power and motor vehicles.  There has been some experimental interest more recently.  Clear environmental win in that that aside from the tank and general vehicle materials the working fluid is available everywhere and environmentally innocuous.  The downside as usual is energy density.

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hawkinspeter | 1 year ago
6 likes

They should just cut to the chase and eat the rich

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joe9090 | 1 year ago
3 likes

Not enough road tax (sic)!

Compare whatever the annual vehichle duty in the UK is for a top of the line 3.0L Range Rover swankypanzer is to the taxation here in NL (Amsterdam for this car): drum roll...... 2520 euro per year. And fuel is of course taxed higher in NL.

Yep - we tax the bejezuz out of those fools. I would double it personally to 5k a year if I was in power. If they would be forced to pay that much tax just to drive to Harrods every now and then I am OK with it. 

 

 

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iandusud replied to joe9090 | 1 year ago
5 likes

joe9090 wrote:

Not enough road tax (sic)!

Compare whatever the annual vehichle duty in the UK is for a top of the line 3.0L Range Rover swankypanzer is to the taxation here in NL (Amsterdam for this car): drum roll...... 2520 euro per year. And fuel is of course taxed higher in NL.

Yep - we tax the bejezuz out of those fools. I would double it personally to 5k a year if I was in power. If they would be forced to pay that much tax just to drive to Harrods every now and then I am OK with it. 

This. If we can't stop people driving these monstrosities at least make them pay something towards the cost of the damage they are doing. Where I live a Range Rover seems to be the car that so many people aspire to, and not only the rich. I live in one of the cheaper neighbourhoods and yet the number of Range Rovers and other luxury cars I see parked on peoples drives is astounding, often with their houses in a state of disrepair. I recnetly noticed one run down house nearby with a Range Rover AND a Porshe Cayenne on the drive! What is wrong with these people?

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Rich_cb replied to iandusud | 1 year ago
1 like

My morning commute takes me through some of the less salubrious areas of town and I pass several houses like that.

I wonder if it's because money laundering regulations apply when you buy a hous but not when you buy a car?

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chrisonabike replied to Rich_cb | 1 year ago
0 likes

Maybe they are levelling themselves up?  There were a few obviously more expensive cars round my old estate - not a "salubrious" place (though I didn't have any trouble aside from the dogshit, smells and noise.  I just stayed away from large collections of youths).

Oddly one or two didn't seem to be driving to an office, factory, restaurant, hospital or building site during the day - often mostly round the estate (WFH, that's how I know).  Never figured that out.

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Hirsute replied to Rich_cb | 1 year ago
2 likes

How many people actually buy a car these days? I thought at least 90% rent them - a way to achieve status.

We've always held onto a car until it is uneconomic to maintain and I hope the currrent car will be the last one we have.

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Rich_cb replied to Hirsute | 1 year ago
0 likes

I think those stats cover all purchases, leases, HP etc.

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chrisonabike replied to iandusud | 1 year ago
0 likes

I have known a few people who didn't own a house or even rent but lived out of their vehicles if that's a helpful data point?  A Luton truck, a canal boat and a van if I recall.  I seriously dobut any of them were in the target market for SUVs though.

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Pyro Tim replied to iandusud | 1 year ago
0 likes

My neighbour opposite has those cars out front, it's probably the cheapest street in the area. The daughter doesn't possess a winter coat and wears plimsolls like we did in the 80s. Priorities completely wrong

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hawkinspeter replied to Pyro Tim | 1 year ago
2 likes

Pyro Tim wrote:

My neighbour opposite has those cars out front, it's probably the cheapest street in the area. The daughter doesn't possess a winter coat and wears plimsolls like we did in the 80s. Priorities completely wrong

Well, they wouldn't spend so much on advertising if it didn't work

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chrisonabike replied to Pyro Tim | 1 year ago
0 likes

Maybe - but maybe not entirely.  Because "fake it before you make it" sometimes applies to humans.  Recall Primo Levi's "The Truce":

Wikipedia wrote:

Levi himself reminisces a bit about a character in the book in his The Paris Review interview: "Have you read my book The Reawakening? You remember Mordo Nahum? I had mixed feelings toward him. I admired him as a man fit for every situation. But of course he was very cruel to me. He despised me because I was not able to manage. I had no shoes. He told me, 'Remember, when there is war, the first thing is shoes, and second is eating. Because if you have shoes, then you can run and steal. But you must have shoes. [...]'

From Wikipedia reference here (part paywalled): https://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/1670/the-art-of-fiction-no-140-primo-levi

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brooksby replied to Pyro Tim | 1 year ago
1 like

Pyro Tim wrote:

My neighbour opposite has those cars out front, it's probably the cheapest street in the area. The daughter doesn't possess a winter coat and wears plimsolls like we did in the 80s. Priorities completely wrong

 

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eburtthebike replied to joe9090 | 1 year ago
2 likes

joe9090 wrote:

......here in NL (Amsterdam for this car): drum roll...... 2520 euro per year. And fuel is of course taxed higher in NL.

So that's how they pay for the cycle lanes.

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chrisonabike replied to eburtthebike | 1 year ago
0 likes

Some places believe they "pay for themselves" [1].  People are even keen on the numbers in reports compiled for the UK government.

The full picture of course is you only get the benefit if you have mass cycling.  That needs a functioning network of cycle infrastructure above a minimum quality.  Plus the means to safely leave / store bikes at either end.  That means more up-front cost than the UK government has ever shelled out for cycling.  It's just cheap (a net benefit) in comparison to what you get if you just put in motoring infrastructure.

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Hirsute | 1 year ago
7 likes

I think I'd be happy if they targeted this driver

//pbs.twimg.com/media/FTgVZzTWYAEtfou?format=jpg&name=large)

Cycle only lane, pavement, live cable left over the pavement.

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nosferatu1001 replied to Hirsute | 1 year ago
3 likes

hirsute wrote:

I think I'd be happy if they targeted this driver

//pbs.twimg.com/media/FTgVZzTWYAEtfou?format=jpg&name=large)

Cycle only lane, pavement, live cable left over the pavement.

im shocked it has both wing mirrors still attached.  Really easy to wobble into them just there I'd have thought. 

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hawkinspeter replied to nosferatu1001 | 1 year ago
4 likes

nosferatu1001 wrote:

im shocked it has both wing mirrors still attached.  Really easy to wobble into them just there I'd have thought. 

Oh Nooo! That'd be private property damage!

**clutches pearls dramatically**

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chrisonabike replied to hawkinspeter | 1 year ago
1 like

Pearls?!  To the scaffold!

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