Motorists who are warned about the dangers posed by SUVs to cyclists and pedestrians on the road are very unlikely to be deterred from buying one, according to a new study.

The study, conducted by researchers at Swansea University, was carried out to test what effect recent evidence highlighting the safety risks associated with sports utility vehicle (SUVs) and other oversized domestic vehicles has had on drivers’ buying habits and attitudes towards other road users.

Last year, research into 35 years’ worth of road traffic collisions found that cyclists and pedestrians are 44 per cent more likely to be fatally injured when struck by an SUV or light truck vehicle (LTV), compared to a smaller passenger car.

> Cyclists 44% more likely to be killed by “supersized” SUVs than smaller cars, as researchers warn against “proliferation of larger vehicles”

That study, carried out by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) and Imperial College London, analysed real-world collision data from over 680,000 crashes and found that larger vehicles caused significantly more severe injuries.

For children, the risk was even greater, with a child hit by an SUV or LTV was 82 per cent more likely to die than one struck by a smaller car, with the risk increasing to 130 per cent among children under the age of 10.

“No more giant cars” campaign (Image Credit: Clean Cities)

To assess the extent to which other road users’ safety plays a role in what vehicles motorists choose to purchase, psychologists at Swansea University took a UK-wide sample of over 2,000 people, including drivers and non-drivers, splitting them randomly into two groups, the Guardian reports.

Half of the participants were shown one of three mocked-up SUV advertisements, which featured a warning that the vehicle posed a “significantly higher risk of fatality” to pedestrians and cyclists. The other half of the sample was shown the same adverts, but without the attached safety warnings.

> Active travel campaigners call for higher taxes on “supersized” SUVs to tackle “carspreading”, claiming they are more dangerous to cyclists and pedestrians and cause more pothole damage

Both groups were then asked questions about their awareness of the risks of SUVs before and after viewing the adverts, with the awareness of those who saw the warnings rising from 35 per cent to 54 per cent.

However, despite the level of awareness rising considerably, when the same group was asked if they intended to buy an SUV as their next car, the percentage of those who said they would buy one only dropped slightly.

Carspreading
Carspreading (Image Credit: Clean Cities)

In fact, they were only 3.7 percentage points less likely to buy an SUV than the group which hadn’t seen the safety warnings. Overall, 95 per cent of people who said they wanted to buy an SUV stuck with that choice at the end of the study.

Perhaps even more worryingly, among the subsection of participants who claimed that the safety of vulnerable road users was an “important factor” in what car they decided to buy, 86 per cent said they still wished to purchase an SUV as their next vehicle.

> “Incredibly stupid, arrogant, and tone-deaf”: Car brand’s SUV advert accused of “punching down” at people cycling and walking by comparing cargo bikes to horse and carts and “chaos of old-fashioned transport”

According to one of the study’s authors, Ian Walker, an environmental psychology professor at Swansea University, this new piece of research is proof that the desire to drive whatever car you want, regardless of its consequences for others, has become “normalised” in society.

Walker also noted that the study demonstrates the need for governments to intervene, even through financial penalties, if they want to reduce the number of large, dangerous vehicles on the roads.

Child walking in front of SUV
Child walking in front of SUV (Image Credit: Clean Cities)

“Buying whatever vehicle we like, and driving it wherever and whenever we please without having to think about the consequences for other people, has become normalised and ingrained across our society over decades,” Walker said.

“As such, it’s not surprising there’s a growing body of evidence that says asking or encouraging people to drive differently doesn’t work, and that stronger interventions will be needed if governments want to get serious about the issue.

“This almost certainly includes having a more honest conversation about how driving, no matter how useful to the person doing it, imposes harms on to other people.”

> Britons have in-built acceptance of driving’s dangers, study suggests

Another study, conducted by Walker in 2023, also found that British people are more accepting of issues and dangers caused by motor vehicles that they otherwise would not be accepting of elsewhere.

Describing the attitude as “motonomativity”, Walker along with co-authors Alan Tapp and Adrian Davis suggested that the “motonormative thought style is as endemic amongst government and the medical profession as in the general population”, with potential implications for policy.

In the study, 75 per cent of people agreed that ‘people shouldn’t smoke in highly populated areas where other people have to breathe in the cigarette fumes’, while only 17 per cent agreed with the same statement changed to ‘people shouldn’t drive in highly populated areas where other people have to breathe in the car fumes’.

Likewise, 37 per cent believed the police needed to take action if someone left their belongings in the street leading to them being stolen, but 87 per cent agreed with the word ‘belongings’ replaced by ‘car’.

And finally, while 61 per cent of people agreed that risk is a ‘natural part of driving’, just 31 per cent agreed that risk is a ‘natural part of work’.