The mayor is considering new charges on SUVs as they now account for almost one-in-three vehicles on capital’s roads despite being more dangerous for pedestrians, reports Kumail Jaffer, Local Democracy Reporter

Mayor of London Sir Sadiq Khan has rejected claims of being “anti-car” as he launched a new road safety plan including more 20mph zones and zebra crossings as well as a review into whether to charge SUV drivers in London.

The mayor said the 43 proposals laid out in his rebooted ‘Vision Zero Action Plan’ would make London’s roads “safer than any city in the country and any major city in the world”.

The document, launched alongside Transport for London (TfL), is City Hall’s major strategy plan to fulfil the mayor’s pledge that there will be no deaths of serious injuries on London’s roads by 2041.

It builds on the first action plan published in 2018, after which the capital saw bus safety standards introduced and the rollout of 20mph zones.

After a progress report in 2021, City Hall and TfL expanded their coverage of controversial low traffic neighbourhoods (LTNs) and expanded London’s dedicated cycle network, as well as providing free training for cyclists and motorcyclists.

TfL say that 24% fewer people were killed or seriously injured on London’s roads in 2024 compared to the 2010-2014 baseline, with the aim being to reach 70% by 2030.

City Hall Conservatives’ transport spokesperson, Thomas Turrell, told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) that the road safety package was effectively a ‘trojan horse’ for the mayor to introduce more anti-motorist measures – and that current data suggested casualty figures aren’t coming down by enough.

He also suggested that proposals to charge SUV drivers were equivalent to a “family car tax” in the capital.

Turrell said: “Sadiq Khan is burying his head in the anti-car sand. TfL’s Vision Zero plan is about the mayor of London carrying out his anti-car agenda, rather than trying to keep Londoners safe.

“Whether it is clamping down on family vehicles or blanketing London in LTNs and 20mph zones, these schemes ignore the fact that at the current rate, the mayor is 1,200 years away from his target of eliminating road deaths.

“More of these ridiculous see-what-sticks policies are making Londoners’ lives worse, not better.

“We must be clear that Sadiq Khan’s family car tax would be a disaster for Londoners trying to get around and would fall on the backs of poorer Londoners the hardest – this is not about making London safer, it is about an ideological agenda.

“Sadiq Khan’s war on motorists cannot be disguised by claims that he is trying to make the capital safer.”

Reform’s Keith Prince added: “From what I’ve seen of Vision Zero, it’s yet another way to punish London’s drivers.

“It sets an unattainable target, and will ultimately be deemed as a failure – along with most of Sadiq Khan’s various schemes and ambitions.”

In response, Khan challenged his critics to “go and meet a bereaved family” for themselves before taking aim at road safety measures.

“I’m not anti-motorist, I’m anti-death,” he told the LDRS. “I am not anti-car, I’m anti-people being injured.

“Go and meet someone who’s had a leg amputated. See the consequences of driving too fast or driving dangerously on our streets. There have been 262 fewer deaths because of our policies.

“Thousands of fewer people are injured because of our policies. We know that by reducing speeds we’ve reduced collisions by 34%, we’ve reduced deaths by a quarter. That’s something I’m really proud of.”

Lilli Matson, TfL’s chief safety, health and environment officer, told the LDRS that London is “outperforming” other major cities like New York and Paris but admitted they “need to go further and get there faster”.

She added: “London has made fantastic progress over the last ten years – but having met people who have been injured or lost loved ones, every death is one too many. So we have to go further and this action plan is about setting out new evidence-based approaches that will help us make our roads even safer for the future.”

SUVs – sports utility vehicles – come under intense scrutiny in the TfL report. Research from Clean Cities last year showed that the proportion of cars defined as an SUV in London is now 31% – up from 3% in 2003.

“Oversized models, such as large SUVs, make it harder for drivers to see people walking and cycling nearby,” the document reads.

“These design features significantly increase the severity of collisions – including the risk of death – particularly for children, who are more easily hidden from a driver’s view.

“Those under nine are at the greatest risk. In Great Britain, SUVs are 14% more likely to kill people walking and cycling than other passenger cars, 77% more likely to kill children up to 18, and 209% more likely to kill children under nine.

“As vehicles keep getting bigger, the danger to people outside them, particularly young children, continues to increase. Without action to address oversized and heavier vehicles, more people will be seriously injured or killed.”

City Hall sources also confirmed that Khan will ask the Met Police to review its use of SUVs currently employed to ferry around high-profile politicians, including the mayor himself.

Khan would not confirm whether he was in support of banning or penalising SUV drivers, saying it was “really important to look at the evidence”.

“There aren’t many farms in London or places to go off road driving so it’s important to realise this is happening but also realise there are consequences of this happening,” he added. “TfL will be undertaking some detailed analysis into the impacts on road safety and the wider consequences of these larger SUVs.”

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