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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Environment
Ajit Niranjan

‘Carspreading’ could lead to extra 400 crash deaths a year by 2040, study finds

A large SUV parked next to a smaller car on a roadside
London could lose about 100,000 parking spaces by 2040 if the trend continues, according to the study. Photograph: Richard Baker/Alamy

Cars have grown 1.2cm longer, 0.5cm taller and 0.5cm wider each year on average since 2000, analysis of new vehicles sold in Europe has found, in what green groups call “relentless carspreading”.

The increase in size, which leaves people more likely to be killed in a crash and increases emissions that hurt lungs and heat the planet, has progressed at a roughly steady rate for two and half decades even as family sizes have fallen, the campaign group Transport & Environment (T&E) found.

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