An inner-Melbourne council could become the first municipality in Australia to increase parking fees for so-called truckzilla twin-cab utes and large SUVs, due to concerns about their safety and environmental impact.
Yarra City Council – which includes Fitzroy, Richmond and Collingwood – will on Tuesday debate a motion from Greens councillor Sophie Wade asking the council to investigate ways to discourage large and heavy vehicles on Yarra’s streets, including “proportionate parking fees based on a
vehicle’s size”.
A RAM truck stopped over a pedestrian crossing in Melbourne’s CBD.Credit: Joe Armao
Wade said she was “following Paris’ lead” in putting up the proposal, after Paris residents voted in a mini-referendum last month to triple parking fees for large cars, part of a push to get big cars off the city’s streets before the Olympics later this year.
“Here in Aus, we’re seeing RAMs and ‘Defenders’ on the rise,” Wade wrote on Instagram. She said no other council had tried the idea.
“These are luxury vehicles, costing upwards of $100k, and they’re significantly more dangerous than smaller vehicles.
“All round, they’re something we need to see less of on our streets, not more.”
Massive utes like Ford F-150s, RAM series trucks, Chevrolet Silverados and Toyota Tundras – which all sell for over $100,000 – made up 4 per cent (around 10,400) of national car sales in 2023, according to the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries.
But Wade’s motion could also apply to more common sports utility vehicles like Nissan X-trails and dual-cab utes like Toyota Hiluxes, which have become the country’s vehicle of choice, replacing family sedans.
SUVs and light commercial vehicles, including dual-cab utes, made up 76 per cent of new vehicles sold in Australia in 2022 – up from 45 per cent a decade ago. Sedans and other passenger cars dropped from half of all new cars sold to just one in five over the same period.
Only three of the top 10 selling car models in Australia last year were sedans, with the rest either large utes, SUVs or 4WDs.
Such is the trend towards larger cars, Standards Australia is considering increasing the required length of off-street parking spaces by 20 centimetres to accommodate larger vehicles
The Australasian College of Road Safety previously told The Age the high fronts on SUVs and large utes can cause blind spots of up to four metres in front of the driver, making them particularly dangerous for children.
The higher point of impact meant struck pedestrians were more likely to suffer head or neck injuries rather than leg injuries, and they were also more likely to be knocked down and run over rather than flipped onto the bonnet.
In a sign the Greens might take the issue up at a state level, Brunswick MP Dr Tim Read told parliament on Thursday the state government should follow the lead of Yarra Council in taking on “truckzillas”.
“Here in Melbourne, we’re seeing more and more Ford Raptor and Dodge Ram oversize utes bulging out of their parking spaces into adjoining roads and bike lanes, [and] struggling to negotiate roundabouts on smaller streets,” he said.
“Typically containing one occupant, they rarely seem to be full of essential cargo or tools. You can even see this sport obesity affecting the SUVs in our parliamentary car park.”
Wade’s motion includes carve-outs for electric vehicles that are heavy due to carrying onboard batteries, and large vehicles used by people with physical disabilities.