February 18, 2011Dear Sir,I find it insane that Sports Utility Vehicles (SUVs) are allowed on this island. Everywhere I look, Bermudians and non-Bermudians alike are driving the Honda-CRV and Kia Sportage monsters that are clearly far too large for Bermuda's narrow country roads. Can someone please tell me why we have SUVs of this size for non-commercial use? They have no place in Bermuda. We seemed to have adopted the North American love of big cars, despite us living on a tiny rock in the middle of the ocean. Does anyone have to travel 100 miles to work? Does every family need that much space in a car? They didn't when I was a kid before SUVs were here, and they certainly don't now! What possible good can these outsized vehicles do for anyone, apart from the car dealerships who sell them, the government who claws in more cash from the duty, and the owners of the island's Esso and Shell gasoline franchises, who must be laughing all the way to the bank. These SUVs are bad for Bermuda for the following reasons:1. The considerable size of these vehicles adds to Bermuda's traffic problem. The volume of traffic in Bermuda is almost at bursting point and as far as I can see government is doing very little to address this issue. With the influx of so many SUVs into the island this has made matters worse. They increase congestion on our overcrowded roads, and the excessive width of these cars also means it is often difficult for motorists to see around them to judge if it is okay to overtake safely.2. SUVs add to the volume of large vehicles on the roads being for non-commercial use. There is already a ridiculous proportion of light trucks and heavy vehicles on our roads, perhaps the result mainly of our island's wealth and the many service industries that exist here. This is tolerable if these were for business use only during working hours, but as we know many Bermudians do not abide by this rule and use their company trucks outside of work hours. Add to this the many people who drive SUVs, and you have a huge proportion of large vehicles on our tiny roads at any one time. They are an intimidating presence on our narrow roads for motorcyclists and pedestrians.Walkers and runners already have to deal with the fact there are rarely sidewalks on Bermuda's roads, and I know people who have been clipped by the wing mirrors of these SUVs, driven by people often exceeding the speed limit who show no courtesy to pedestrians. It has never been more dangerous to ride a bike or walk on Bermuda's roads. The increasing volume of vehicles in Bermuda, together with their increasing size, combined with the fact that most of us ignore the speed limit, is going to lead to a greater number of road accidents and serious casualties in the future.3. SUVs need more gas than mid-sized vehicles due to their size, thereby increasing emissions of noxious exhaust fumes onto Bermuda's roads. They also increase the island's demand for gasoline and therefore our reliance on foreign oil. Everyone has to use Bermuda's roads, but the poisonous exhaust fumes we are inhaling is akin to passive smoking. So if you are unnecessarily driving an unfeasibly large automobile, you are more to blame than those driving smaller, and therefore more environmentally-friendly cars.4. Many SUVs do not even fit inside the normal boundaries of most car park spaces (you ever had to park next to a fat SUV and find yourself contorting your body in strange positions to get out of your car?). We have limited car parking in Bermuda and we should not be increasing the size of these to accommodate these larger vehicles.5. SUVs are far more expensive to buy than most other cars ($35-40,000 compared to $15-20,000 for standard five-doors). I know you cannot tell people how to spend their money, but government can take these cars out of the equation and prevent the unnecessary extra expenditure. It's a luxury item that Bermuda cannot afford!We cannot widen Bermuda's roads, so please tell me where is the logic in allowing larger cars onto this island? I believe they are yet another unwelcome legacy of this government, who allowed larger cars for non-commercial use onto Bermuda's roads. A good government should have recognised it is utterly ludicrous to have large SUVs on this tiny island (but wait, this is the government that has representatives who actually believe increasing the speed limit is going to solve our speeding problem!). The government should have the long term interests of its voters in mind.Please can someone in the government explain to me the reason for allowing larger cars on the island when traffic has never been as bad, and done at a time when the price of oil was skyrocketing? Why do they not ban these large cars and do something like making electric powered or hybrid cars mandatory? Of course that would be progressive, and this government has so far demonstrated clearly it is nothing but regressive in its policies.So I propose a solution. Ban the import and sale of new SUVs now! Remove them from Bermuda's roads by attrition. Ban these and other non-commercial vehicles of this size such as the mini people-buses from private use. Incentivize Bermudians to invest in smaller, more environmentally and cost friendly cars that are more sustainable for Bermuda's roads, and to bring Bermuda more in line with the initiatives in developed nations.We forget that Bermuda is a small island home. Given our tiny size and limited resources, it is more vital for us than larger countries to have sustainable policies. We have already overdeveloped this country and covered it in concrete. Let us not overcrowd our roads too. Let the Government show it is prepared to put the long term interest of Bermuda first, before the interest of the small amount of businesses that benefit from SUVs being here!SUVs SHOULD RIPPaget