Never before have the Danes been around in such large cars. The same goes for the rest of the Europeans and Americans.
It is the SUVs in particular that are driving the size of the car fleets around the Western world enormously upwards.
In fact, the size of our cars has only grown. And quite considerably. This is shown by a new survey from the analysis company Jato Dynamics .
Americans have long bought wide and tall cars. But over the last long while, the Europeans have caught up with them.
A survey carried out by DR with figures from the Road Directorate in 2022 shows that even the 'smaller cars' have become larger.
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For example, a Golf has grown from a width of 1.61 meters in 1974 to 1.79 meters in 2019. The length has also increased. Here, the car has grown from 3.71 meters to just over 4.26 meters over the same period.
It causes problems. Especially in Europe. Because here, neither the roads nor the parking bays have kept up with the times. The analysis firm's figures show that the average passenger car on European roads is 1.84 meters wide.
The Road Directorate's latest recommendations for the size of parking bays date back to 2009.
At the time, the authority wrote that parking bays with a width of 2.5 meters and a length of 5 meters are recommended. However, several cars find it difficult to fit in that amount of space at all.
In particular, it is a problem for drivers in station wagons and SUVs. The latter is precisely the most popular car type in Denmark. So much so, in fact, that it outsold a 37-year-old record last year. Read more about it here .