You’ve probably noticed it.
Cars spilling out of parking spaces. SUVs you can’t see past when crossing the road. Pavements with barely enough room. Huge bonnets outside the school gates.
Cars have been getting bigger for years. Longer, wider, taller – making streets more dangerous and especially for kids.
There is a name for this: Carspreading.
And once you see it, you start seeing it everywhere.
BIGGER has quietly become more normal.
SO, WHAT’S THE BIG DEAL?
If we fill our towns and cities with bigger and bigger cars – things start to get pretty squeezed.
Less space to walk around
Less space for buses and bike lanes
Less space for others to park
But it’s not just about space. Bigger vehicles, particularly the largest SUVs, create greater risks for the people outside them.
more likely to be killed in a collision with an SUV than a regular car, for children under 10 in the UK.
more child pedestrians could be killed each year compared with a scenario where cars are right-sized.
of UK on-street parking spaces could be wiped out by carspreading by 2040 if the current trend continues.
WANT SOMETHING TO CHANGE?
SIGN OUR PETITION AGAINST CARSPREADING
We’re building a movement across the UK to push back on unnecessarily large cars in our towns and cities.
Bigger cars don’t just make our streets harder to live with. They make them more dangerous – especially for children.
Add your name and show our politicians that you want something to change.
When enough people come together locally, that support can push councils to act.
CAN YOU SPOT CARSPREADING?
Once you notice it, you start seeing it everywhere.
- Oversized SUVs blocking the view as you cross the street
- Cars spilling out of parking spaces
- Pavements (and people) squeezed by oversized cars
- School gates taken over by huge vehicles
If you’ve got a great example of carspreading sitting in your camera roll, or know where you could find some – we want to see it.
Show us what bigger cars are doing to the streets where you live.
WANT TO LEARN MORE ABOUT CARSPREADING?
Check out our carspreading homepage by clicking the button below.