Sydney motorists believe the “truckification” of the family car has led to a culture of aggressive and menacing driving, as sales of large utes and SUVs continue to surge.
A survey of drivers also found a majority saying large utes and SUVs were largely or fairly important as a cause of road deaths and injuries.
Large utes and SUVs provoke strong views from people, with proponents praising their roominess and height and saying they feel safer in them.Credit: Nick Moir
A majority of motorists surveyed by market polling firm Utting Research called for governments to highlight the dangers posed by large utes and SUVs because of their large blind spots, greater weight and how difficult they can be to see around.
Data from the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries shows more than half of the 1.21 million vehicles sold in Australia in 2023 were SUVs (679,462), followed by light commercial (274,185), passenger (211,361) and heavy commercial (51,772).
Sales of SUVs, and light and heavy commercial vehicles have increased since 2019, while passenger vehicles sales have declined by more than 100,000.
Utting Research managing director John Utting said large utes and SUVs provoked strong views from people, with proponents praising their roominess and height and saying they feel safer in them.
Most drivers believe the rising popularity of large utes has been accompanied by a culture of aggressive and sometimes menacing driving.Credit: Joe Armao
But opponents disparage their size, how difficult it is to see around them and how their size leaves little room to open your car door in parking lots, he said.
The survey found most Sydney drivers believe the rising popularity of large utes – called the “truckification” of the family car in the United States – has been accompanied by a culture of aggressive and sometimes menacing driving.
A 2018 research paper by Virginia Tech political science associate professor Cara Daggett identified a social trend of “petro-masculinity” in which men flamboyantly use fossil fuels to express their opposition to social progress.
Annoyance about these vehicles was shown by the finding that almost half of Sydney drivers want large utes and SUVs pay higher parking fees.
Parisians in February voted to triple parking fees for large SUVs to €18 ($29) an hour for the first two hours, compared with €6 an hour for smaller cars.
Yarra City Council in Melbourne in March voted in favour of a motion that seeks to charge parking fees based on the size of each vehicle.
NSW Greens transport spokeswoman Cate Faehrmann backed measures to discourage large vehicles as long as people who require them for work are not penalised.
Australasian College of Road Safety chief executive Ingrid Johnston said tax incentives for utes and SUVs have led to a huge increase in their number on roads, “far beyond the apparent need as work vehicles”.
“They are big, high, and heavy vehicles, and they do more damage in the event of a crash,” she said.
Johnston said the size and weight of large “truck” SUVs has been shown to be detrimental to vulnerable road users and small vehicles in the event of a crash.
“We know that children are eight times more likely to die when struck by an SUV compared to by a sedan, so we need to be thinking about whether or not we want there to be so many of them on our city streets,” she said. “Are the incentives to purchase these vehicles worth the cost?”
Data from Transport for NSW shows there were 17,612 crashes involving 4WD vehicles where someone was injured or killed between 2018 and 2022, compared with 43,047 crashes involving other cars.
Monash University Accident Research Centre director Stuart Newstead said the increasing use of dual-cab utes used as family vehicles, as opposed to work, was a problem for road safety.
“What we do know is in the event of a crash, they are more likely to cause people to be injured or killed,” he said.
In contrast, Newstead said smaller SUVs were really “just a jacked up car” and did not pose the same risk to other road users.
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