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=                             Autobesity                             =
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                             Introduction                             
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Autobesity, also known as car bloat and truck bloat, is the trend,
beginning in about the 1990s, of cars increasing in average size and
weight. The average weight of cars sold in Europe increased by 21%
between 2001 and 2022. In the United States, SUVs and pickup trucks
comprised more than 75% of new sales in 2024 compared to 38% in 2009.


                        Negative consequences                         
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Among the consequences of increased car weight and size are:

* Poorer air quality, even with electric vehicles, because heavier
vehicles have higher energy consumption and release more tyre and
brake particles (non-tailpipe emissions).
* Reduced road safety, as heavier vehicles have greater kinetic
energy, and taller vehicles are more likely to strike pedestrians in
the head and torso, or even not be able to see small children who are
below the driver's line of sight. Additionally, larger vehicles are
more likely to hit pedestrians when turning due to poorer visibility.
Vehicles with higher front ends and blunt profiles are 45% more likely
to cause fatalities in crashes with pedestrians than smaller cars and
trucks. In the United States, pedestrian fatalities increased by 57%
between 2013 and 2022.
* Parking issues for other vehicles, as they don't fit in typical
parking spaces, often occupying multiple spaces.
* Increased consumption of public space, promoting more sprawling
cities and further exacerbating energy  and automobile dependency.


                             Explanations                             
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An individual driver may choose a large car for personal safety,
though it threatens other road users. This in turn pushes others to
choose large cars, a vicious circle. A US National Safety Council
expert described autobesity as an "arms race".

Even though this is a decisive factor that some buyers do take into
account, even the ones that don't actively search for larger vehicles
are affected due to the increase in the number of safety features:
from airbags to crumple zones. These require much more space in the
vehicle, even adding areas of apparently empty space just so that the
bodywork has a larger crumple zone in case of a collision.


               Government actions to counter autobesity               
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* France, Norway, the Netherlands and Washington, D.C. (among others)
tax vehicles by weight.
* A 2023 European Parliament report proposes introducing a new
"category B+" driving licence for cars heavier than .
* From 2024 Paris will charge higher parking fees for SUVs.
* In September 2024, the US National Highway Traffic Safety
Administration proposed a rule mandating manufacturers to test their
vehicles using pedestrian crash test dummies, with an estimate of
saving 67 pedestrian lives per year.


                            External links                            
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*
[https://dictionaryblog.cambridge.org/2023/08/21/new-words-21-august-2023/
What is Autobesity? About Words - Cambridge Dictionary blog - New
words - 21 August 2023]


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License URL: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
Original Article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autobesity


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