Source: Radio New Zealand
Health researchers have suggested a tax on utes. RNZ / Cole Eastham-Farrelly
Health researchers at the University of Auckland have suggested a tax on utes in response to high emissions and more deadly accidents.
They said traffic accidents involving utes were seven times more likely to be fatal, burdening the healthcare system.
“There is a cost, we’ve got so much more air pollution and so much more injury associated with these things. Someone has to pay that cost,” senior researcher Dr Kirsty Wild said.
“We have a particularly polluted and dangerous transport system at the moment and it’s putting particular pressure on our healthcare resources.”
She noted a significant difference in emissions between utes and other cars.
“There’s quite a big difference actually, New Zealand research shows [utes] contribute about seven times as much social harm when it comes to things like air pollution, particularly toxic exhaust with diesel vehicles,” she said.
That was primarily an issue in cities, she said.
“Utes are not as much of a problem in rural areas, but they’re not primarily being used in rural areas, our research showed that about two thirds of ute trips are happening in cities,” she said.
“And they’re just particularly dangerous in cities, seven times more likely to kill you if they hit you, particularly dangerous to kids, and [cities are] where air pollution is a real problem, having 3000 early deaths every year due to our air pollution problems.”
The shape and size of a ute made them significantly more damaging in a crash, Wild said.
“The traditional bonnet of a car, it’s sloped and fairly soft, it’s designed to reduce some of the impact, you go up on the bonnet. With [utes] they’re very high, instead of hitting you in the legs they hit you in the chest and are more likely to drag you under the car,” she said.
Wild and her colleague Professor Alistair Woodward were spearheading calls for a tax to discourage people from buying utes if they did not need them.
“Thinking about whether there [should be] higher charges for things like congestion charges, and also asking councils not to do things like make parking spaces bigger to accommodate these vehicles which just encourages it,” Wild continued.
That could extend to a ban on advertising.
“[Utes] are one of the most heavily marketed commodities in the world, and like we see with other harmful commodities, things like tobacco, yeah I think there’s a case [for] restrictions on advertising.”
Such a thing was not unprecedented, she explained.
“There are a range of things that have been implemented, mostly in Europe, around sales taxes, around parking taxes, and in general they don’t have the same problem because they have better pollution standards and pedestrian protection standards in their transport planning.”
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
