Geraldine Herbert

So if you're driving one of these, you know, bigger, heavier cars and you have an impact, you know, it also impacts people inside of the cars, not just outside.

But outside, obviously, they're the most vulnerable.

Oh, yeah.

And I mean, that's quite true.

And I mean, that's the thing about cars.

They have become so much safer for the people inside, but not an awful lot has improved for the people outside.

And these bigger cars create bigger blind spots.

And it's much, as I said, it's harder to see people.

And if that impact with a pedestrian and a cyclist just increases with the weight and the bonnet height.

Yeah, even with what we call kind of a standard-sized car.

Now, if you go into one of the older car parks, you really see the difference.

It's a lot tighter trying to squeeze in just your average-sized car now

But also what Transport and Environment are saying, just from a Dublin city perspective, they estimate that between 1,700 and 2,700 on-street spaces could be lost between now and 2040, just by the sheer bulk of the cars, because they take up more space and you'll get fewer cars in them.

So, you know, parking spaces, like it's not just, safety is obviously a huge issue, but parking, we could lose up to 14% of our parking space.

electricity, these larger cars consume more electricity and consume more resources.

So, I mean, it's across the board, those issues with these bigger cars.

Yeah, well, what they're saying is, obviously, vehicle standards from the EU, you could have tax reform, you can have various different parking restrictions.

And across Europe, in some of the countries, sales of heavier vehicles do have taxes.

But I think that what really needs to happen is from it, this has to be done from an EU perspective, because, you know, cities banning bigger cars are putting taxes.

It's not really going to change what's available on the market.