By Jane Fynes-Clinton, Courier mail 30/9/04 (reprinted with permission)

They are the most divisive vehicles on Queensland roads. Big, strong and potentially damaging to other cars and pedestrians, four-wheel-drives cause their own traffic tidal flow: lovers on one side, haters on the other and very few drivers on the traffic island of ambivalence in between.

Now it has been revealed that the humans behind the wheels as well as their metal monsters are on the hate lists of other motorists. And it seems even a hefty proportion of four-wheel drivers admit to being hostile.

Four-wheel drives are easy targets. They are plentiful, highly visible and perceived as the vehicle of choice for the toffee-nosed and upwardly mobile.

The fact that these vehicles, designed for recreation but more often found on suburban streets, are over-represented in many compilations of crash, fatality and injury statistics does not enhance non-four-wheel drivers' perceptions.

On Tuesday, insurer AAMI revealed that half of all road users thought four-wheel drivers were more arrogant and aggressive than other road users and a fifth of 4WD owners agreed.

The survey of 1880 drivers also found that half believed that 4WDs had no place on city streets.

Last year, the Queensland Injury Surveillance Unit revealed that being run over in the driveway at low speed was the third leading cause of death for our state's preschoolers.

Only dying as a passenger in a car accident and drowning were more common.

More than 40 per cent of the vehicles involved in killing these tots were 4WDs, and two-thirds of the tragedies happened at home with a family member behind the wheel. No group of drivers could be comfortable with these statistics.

To those who don't own them, 4WDs are menaces for reasons including their hulking size and propensity to block the view of oncoming traffic; their enormous fuel consumption and pollution emission; and their tendency to roll over or devastate other vehicles in crashes.

But the popularity of 4WDs is astounding, accounting for one in five of new cars bought in Australia last year.

Most people drive large 4WDs simply because they are big and offer a feeling of safety. A few drive them because they can bully other road users.

The AAMI study revealed that 60 per cent of four-wheel drivers live in the city. Most presumably believe they will spend their weekends and holidays on the beaches and in the bush, playing at being lovers of the great outdoors.

Very few actually do, but by buying the means to go where few others can, the dream is kept alive.

No matter how the statistics are pushed or twisted, it is clear that the combination of some 4WDs and their drivers created real and perceived dangers for other vehicles. The time has come to do something about it.

Some lobby groups, such as the Pedestrian Council of Australia and www.nosuv.org, would like to see 4WDs taken off urban streets altogether. Some suggest taxing them into oblivion, but cultural history shows that pushing up the cost makes an object more desirable.

Imported 4WDs attract a lower tariff (5 per cent) than regular cars (15 per cent). But this is a hangover from the good old days when 4WDs were used for the purposes for which they were intended, such as farm work and off-road activities.

The Government is slowly addressing this inequity, with the tariff set to rise in a few months.

Tax hikes and price rises are not the answer. What must be brought in, and soon, is a system of licensing and regulating just for 4WDs. It may not be that hard to implement, given the support for the idea: the AAMI survey found that six out of 10 general drivers thought four-wheel drivers should have special licence requirements, and a third of four-wheel drivers agreed.

One matter that must be addressed in licence training is the aggression and arrogance some four-wheel drivers admit to.

Road safety experts say that driving tests generally should be more stringent and scheduled regularly.

I believe all drivers should be assessed during the day, at night, on highways and on dirt roads.

A driver's observation, consideration for other drivers and basic car maintenance like checking tyre condition and pressure should be judged as well.

But drivers of specialised vehicles, particularly 4WDs, should have their own assessments as well. The vehicles are not as manoeuvrable, their driver's visibility is hampered and the driver needs to be taught that size does not equal dominance.

Four-wheel drivers clearly need extra skills to handle their machines and the risk to non-four-wheel drivers must be minimised.

Jane Fynes-Clinton's column appears every Thursday.