It is about safety. Larger cars on the streets are more dangerous for the people living in the city.
Cars have been getting ridiculously large over the past decades because the only force acting upon carmakers is the desire of the car buyer.
If I’m buying a car, I obviously want the largest car I can afford and semi-reasonably fit where I’m going to be. This has many benefits for me, but a lot of negative externalites for everyone around me.
That is why policies need to discourage larger cars in many ways, to keep the average size in check, so to speak.
> If I’m buying a car, I obviously want the largest car I can afford
Is that obvious? I guess I'm weird, as I always want the smallest car I can get that gives me the features I want. I'm constantly annoyed that I end up in larger cars than I ideally want because that's basically the choice I'm given.
I mean the US effectively outlawed an arguably most versatile of all vehicles for vast spaces of US, the compact truck, which fits somewhere in the middle of vehicle sizes. I suspect most of those people had to move to another class, perhaps to these larger trucks.
If I am buying a car I am buying the smallest, most efficient and reliable thing that still fulfills my needs.
A car being big is not a quality in itself unless you need that size twice a week. An there are quite few SUV driving people that really do.
At the same time there are real advantages for small cars in any city that isn't designed and zoned around cars (so literally every city where I live). You find easier parking, fuel consumption is lower, tires last longer, most maintenance is cheaper, you usually have an easier time in traffic avoiding kids, animals and cyclists, because you will see them more easily, etc.
>decades because the only force acting upon carmakers is the desire of the car buyer.
Trucks, and perhaps some cars also got bigger also because of fuel efficiency regulations (CAFE) that require a larger footprint if gas mileage is worse. They had to make for instance the Tacoma much larger to match a barely changed engine. And foreign small import trucks were stifled with the chicken tax, pushing consumers towards Americas McGigantic brands.
