[Article] Spoof penalty tickets spook SUV owners

Victor

http://home.eircom.net/content/reuters/uNews/8196813?view=Standard#

Spoof penalty tickets spook SUV owners
From:Reuters
Monday, 05 June, 2006
By Matthew Jones

LONDON (Reuters) - The grimace may be real as the "parking ticket" is peeled from the windscreen, but the mood lightens as it becomes clear the penalty notice is fake.

Drivers of huge off-road vehicles in some of London's more fashionable areas are even beginning to get used to receiving the spoof tickets -- courtesy of Blake Ludwig and like-minded campaigners.

Ludwig is one of a band of environmentalists for whom the tickets are just part of the weaponry at their disposal in the information war being waged against city-bound Sports Utility Vehicles (SUVs).

"These gas guzzling off-roaders have no place in the city and our 'parking tickets' are a light-hearted way of trying to show drivers just how damaging their vehicles are," the 46-year-old IT consultant told Reuters.

At first glance the tickets from the Alliance Against Urban 4x4s look convincing, but closer inspection reveals subtle differences from the real thing.

"Do Not Pay Now" the tickets read. "Our children and grandchildren will pay for our dependence on fossil fuels."

On the reverse are government figures about the fuel economy and carbon emissions of various best selling off-roaders and how they compare with a typical family car and super mini.

Ludwig, originally from Los Angeles, said the Alliance is not indiscriminately opposed to 4x4s.

"We recognise there are people like farmers with a legitimate reason to use these vehicles, but the reality is that only 5 percent ever leave the tarmac," he said.

Urban 4x4s are mockingly called "Chelsea tractors" by their critics after the upmarket London district where they are especially popular.

So how do the drivers of these huge vehicles react when they get one of Ludwig's tickets?

Some are surprisingly understanding, even apologetic, although Ludwig has never encountered a road-side conversion:

"We advise our people not to get confrontational," he said, adding that "one driver a couple of weeks back was sympathetic to our aims, although he pointed out that large executive cars were equally polluting."

Driving a 12 mpg 4x4 or indeed large luxury car compared with a 25 mpg saloon car wastes more energy in one year than leaving the fridge door open for seven years, he said.

SAFETY CONCERNS

According to the Transport Research Laboratory, the growing number of off-roaders, combined with an increase in the number of smaller-than-average cars has prompted a mismatch in any collision between the two.

Figures show the fatality rate for occupants of the smaller vehicle is 12 times of those in the larger vehicle.

It is precisely these kind of statistics which lead many urban drivers to buy SUVs, a scenario Ludwig characterises as an "automotive arms race."

But SUV drivers are unrepentant.

"I prefer driving one of these -- I can see the road better and I feel safer," said Michelle, a mother of two who did not want to give her last name.

While she conceded she would not even consider taking her Toyota Landcruiser off-road, she defended her right to drive whatever vehicle she wanted.

"It is very handy with the kids and all their belongings and we've no intention of getting rid of it," she said.

But for Michelle and many other SUV drivers, official figures about the safety of 4x4 occupants might make uncomfortable reading.

The European New Car Assessment Programme (Euro-NCAP), which carries out crash tests, found that many 4x4's offer no more protection to occupants than typical saloon cars and that most big 4x4s score badly in terms of pedestrian safety.

The Institute of Advanced Motorists has called for parents driving large 4x4s to be extra careful when dropping off and picking up their children from school.

"While any car is potentially lethal if driven badly, it has to be said the handling characteristics and the weight and size of these 4x4s together pose a potential road safety risk when there are child pedestrians around," IAM Chief Examiner Bryan Lunn is quoted as saying on the institute's Web site.

"MONSTROSITY" SALES BOOM.

Whatever the pros and cons of ownership, one fact is incontrovertible -- SUV ownership is booming, whatever energy minister Malcolm Wicks might think.

Wicks said earlier this year: "there is a crass irresponsibility in some of the larger monstrosities people drive around suburbia and in London" -- but the tills at dealerships keep ringing.

Over the last five years, registrations of 4x4s have risen by more than 40 percent, according to the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT). The overall rise of vehicle registrations has been about 10 percent.

For Ludwig and others like him striving to rid urban streets of 4x4s the best hope is for a change in fashion.

"Many 4x4s are bought to show-off their owners' wealth -- they're a fashion statement, a status symbol," he said.

"The campaign is all about informing people and hopefully make it socially unacceptable to drive these vehicles in busy city streets."

markf909

Haha, thats very similar to a recent South Park shown in the states:D