
Cities Can Reclaim Their Streets from SUVs - jseliger
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-09-17/how-cities-could-push-back-on-pickups-and-suvs
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dzhiurgis
IMO problem is not enough public space for bikes, peds and public transport to
begin with. It's obviously impossible solve for US, AU, NZ and the like. But
in old cities we can definitely reclaim the space from private cars for the
greater good. Watch
[https://www.youtube.com/c/TheLifeSizedCity/playlists](https://www.youtube.com/c/TheLifeSizedCity/playlists)
to see how selfish car infrastructure is with no consideration for anyone
else. In many cases something like 90% of public space is dedicated to
cars....

If you wan't people to stop using something - make it inconvenient. SUV's are
bloody good for car focused cities, especially for families. They are useless
in large European cities by design and we're not even talking silly sizes like
in US. A crossover (which is also smaller in EU than in US) is too big and too
impractical.

That said amazing how one class of vehicles is vilified and others are OK.
Seems buses and utility trucks and headphones don't kill pedestrians. Only
personal SUV's kill pedestrians. Guess who'd want to push such narrative...

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vcolano
IMO a gas tax rate that is on par with the rest of the developed world would
be the most sane way to combat this. Gas taxes in the US and Canada are dismal
compared to many other countries
([https://afdc.energy.gov/data/widgets/10327](https://afdc.energy.gov/data/widgets/10327)).

And of course more investment in pedestrian/biking infrastructure and more
walkable city planning.

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jeffrallen
Car registration cost is proportional to (internal combustion) horsepower in
Switzerland, which is helpful in punishing buyers if heavy vehicles.

Electric cars in Canton Vaud can be registered for a flat rate of $25, whereas
cars are $700 a year and bigger vehicles (SUV, 7 place minivan) are $1200.

Eventually the transition to electric will require that we apply
proportionality to electric too.

