(reprinted with permission)

Four-wheel drives have taken over from the much-maligned Volvos as the vehicle many love to hate. Critics of 4WDs say they are dirty, dangerous and have no place on inner-city streets, as INGRID SVENDSEN reports

NURSING cuts, bruises and broken ribs, engineer Olly Powell began plotting the demise of car culture while he was in hospital recovering after a run-in with a Ford Falcon.

The 25-year-old Australian-based Kiwi, who was hit while cycling home from work, knows things could have been worse. He could have been hit by a four-wheel drive. Powell, who is just about to finish a doctoral thesis in electronic engineering, hates all cars but says gas guzzling "urban assault vehicles" have no place on city streets.

The self-taught web page designer has spent hundreds of hours creating the noSUV.org website, the Australasian arm of a global campaign against big off-roaders, now referred to by the North American term sports utility vehicles (SUVs).

Powell wants 4WDs banned in the central city and around schools. He says they degrade urban air quality and threaten the lives of pedestrians, children, cyclists and those in smaller fuel-efficient cars. He likens the proliferation of 4WDs in urban streets to an arms race in which ultimately everyone is imperiled.

"The aim is to put car culture back in its place, and for me it's a matter of tackling the worst offenders first. I felt like this was the bully on the block," he says.

He has a huge task. This month the Australian motor industry celebrated record sales of more than 92,000 vehicles. Almost one in five, according to the automotive industry bible, VFACTS, was a SUV. These range from dinky toy jeeps and all-wheel-drive family wagons to two-tonne, bullbar-equipped workhorses.

Even in the inner suburbs, where car parking is as tight as the narrow residential streets, 4WDs have become a fashion accessory for people convinced they need big tanks for their safety, power, convenience or for the mythical outback trip they will probably never take. Car industry research shows that as few as one in 10 ever leave the bitumen.

Inner-city 4WD owners have probably never heard of Powell. But many will soon experience his revenge. Powell's principal weapon is the humble bumper sticker, which like-minds can download and print from his website. During the Critical Mass bike rally through the Burnley Tunnel last month, Powell "unleashed" hundreds of the stickers, and expects more shiny urban 4WDs to soon be sporting his web address and the message "I'm Polluting Your Air".

Powell may be risking a few more broken ribs, but he believes "SUV tagging" is worthwhile. "The aim is to change the image of 4WDs," he says. "It's annoying obviously. And I hope they do feel angry because if they're feeling angry then they'll feel guilty about it. They must know about the safety and environmental issues by now. They shouldn't be poncing around the city or along the beach in these things."

Powell argues - and motoring organisations such as the RACV agree - that a big passenger car is perfectly capable of towing a boat or caravan and that a "people mover" van is a safer and more economical option for transporting large families. Powell believes the desire to own a 4WD has more to do with ego than common sense.

Anyone who has found a "Child Killing Vehicle" sticker slapped next to their "Baby on Board" sign can blame someone like "Steve", a university student who has tagged hundreds urban 4WDs around Melbourne. Cheerfully aiming to infuriate, Steve says he wants 4WD owners to consider the environmental and social costs of their vehicles.

"They've got their place, especially in a huge country like this, but it sure isn't in the city and it's definitely not in the inner suburbs." Powell's army of taggers might use radical methods but their message is becoming mainstream. Government research confirms safety fears about 4WDs, which can handle poorly and are more prone to roll in accidents. The government's Australian Transport Safety Bureau last year reported an 85 per cent leap in fatal 4WD crashes between 1990 and 1998, figures described by parliamentary secretary for transport, Senator Ron Boswell, as "quite staggering".

The same research also found that in crashes involving passenger cars, the occupants of the smaller car were more than three times more likely to die than those in the 4WD.

This is because their size and weight means 4WDs can crash through the safety defences of smaller passenger cars. "In side impacts they tend to strike at head level, instead of at door level where the side intrusion bars are located that are designed to catch a passenger car," explains RACV crash test expert Julian Del Beato. "A 4WD will ride over that more directly and strike at head level, and in front-on collisions they will ride over the bonnets of passenger cars, and that again reduces the ability of crumple zones to protect the occupants of passenger cars."

Pedestrians also face greater risk from chunky 4WDs. "Whereas with a small Hyundai, for example, you might get struck in the knees by the bumper bar, with a large 4WD, particularly one with a bullbar, you might be struck in the chest or abdomen. The risk of serious injury or death in that situation, even at low speed, is greatly increased," Del Beato says.

The president of the Pedestrian Council of Australia, Harold Scruby, brands 4WDs "weapons of mass destruction" and says he is horrified at the threat they pose to walkers, especially children. He is campaigning for tax and compulsory third party insurance increases to "price them off the road".

There are other dangers. Federal Transport Department research last year concluded 4WDs created up to 15 times more pollution than passenger cars. A report in the RACV's Royal Auto magazine this month shows that 4WDs are much more expensive to maintain, largely because of the extra fuel costs. For example, it costs an average of almost $300 a week to keep a big Toyota LandCruiser on the road, compared to $233 for a Tarago passenger van or $190 for a Holden Commodore Executive.

RACV vehicle program leader Ernest Litera says it is silly to own a large 4WD to commute to work or ferry the kids to school. "People should think about the fact that they shouldn't be on their own driving a 4WD to work because they are very inefficient, costly and environmentally-unfriendly, and even if it's a (company) car I would say that's not a mitigating factor."

Governments, however, seem reluctant to speak out. Senator Boswell was not available for comment. The office of Federal Transport Minister John Anderson referred the issue to Treasurer Peter Costello, whose office did not respond to queries. State Transport Minister Peter Batchelor was similarly silent.

Meanwhile the craze continues."Belinda" bought a new Pajero a year ago. It goes off road a few times a year and into the city, where Belinda works, every day. Belinda says she and her husband need a 4WD to tow their small fishing boat, and says the Pajero is also handy to carry the dog.

Belinda has not heard of the safety concerns surrounding vehicles like hers and adds: "I guess it is a selfish thing but I guess our safety comes before anyone else's."

Another urban 4WD owner, Noelene from North Fitzroy, says she needs her LandCruiser to carry supplies for her picture-framing business and for weekend trips to her farm on the outskirts of Melbourne.

"I know there are a whole lot of people who criticise and say we shouldn't have them but I find that these hoons driving around in little cars at 150 kph are a much greater nuisance than I'll ever be."

Peter Sturrock, the chief executive of the Federated Chamber of Automotive Industries says SUVs are evolving from "stump jumpers and rock climbers" into safe and efficient multi-purpose urban vehicles. Despite the "extravagant claims" about their hazards, Sturrock says buses, trucks and delivery vans are a bigger concern.

Not surprisingly, Toyota's PR manager, Mike Breen, agrees. Breen says a motor scooter or a Toyota Corolla can be dangerous "in the wrong hands", and says he is happy to have his wife ferry his own children around in big 4WDs.

Drivers are voting with their purchasing power, Breen says. "If the average mum and dad thought they were dangerous, they wouldn't be buying them in droves."

It is probably the only point on which the 4WD advocates and the sticker-wielders agree. Powell says awareness of the social and environmental costs of 4WDs can halt the fad "in its tracks".

"It's about persuading the soccer mums to sell their 4WDs and get something sensible instead. Consumers are the ones that started this trend and they need to be educated to finish it."