<
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/aug/24/road-safety-experts-propose-levy-on-suvs-in-city-to-curb-rising-victorian-road-deaths>
"A levy charged to people who drive large SUVs in the city has been mooted as a
possible way to curb Victoria’s “skyrocketing” road deaths since the Covid-19
pandemic.
Road safety experts this week told the Victorian government’s inquiry into road
safety for vulnerable road users that fatal accidents had risen amid the “many
and lingering” changes to road travel behaviour wrought by the pandemic.
Victoria’s Traffic Accident Commission has recorded 186 road fatalities this
year, up 23.2% on 2022 figures. Pedestrian deaths on roads were up 8%. Other
states have also recorded increases.
Ingrid Johnston from the Australasian College of Road Safety said trauma rates
had increased even since the inquiry was called.
The trend began in 2020, when “traffic dropped but trauma rates didn’t drop as
much as you’d expect”, Johnston said. “And following that we’ve seen the rates
skyrocket.”
In Victoria the decrease in kilometres travelled was 14% greater than the
decrease in road trauma, the peak body’s submission to the committee says.
Among the strategies put forward by the ACRS to help mitigate the problem were
financial disincentives for the use of large SUVs, which are known to
particularly affect vulnerable road users such as cyclists.
“It’s being done elsewhere. To disincentivise people from purchasing these cars
in the first place, you could increase import tax,” Johnston said.
“You could try to disincentivise them being used in the middle of cities, so
you could have a levy for bringing a vehicle of a certain size. You could
increase registration fees.”
More than 50% of new vehicles sold in Australia last year were SUVs, while SUV
and light commercial vehicle sales combined have risen from 45.3% of total
vehicle sales in 2012 to 76.8% in 2022."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
