It’s time we called an end to the unlimited size and power and rein of those monster cars that are filling our suburban driveways, prompting neighbourhood rows and risking road safety.

And it’s perplexing why our legislators haven’t moved to do this earlier.

Our suburbs are now filled with vehicles more matched to a weekend of pig hunting than suburban life, where the speed limit dips to 40 every few streets.

Remember the debate, only a few years ago, that erupted over whether cars fitted with bull bars should be allowed on Brisbane streets?

Talkback filled with concerns over pedestrian safety, and the rationale behind the need for bull bar-fitted cars in suburban Bulimba where kangaroos are rarely spotted.

Special taxes were even floated for those motorists showing off with ginormous cars in suburban garages.

But the bull bar has proved to be a decoy; the real issue is the massive growth in the size and power of the family car, now packed into suburban streets.

It’s another of those trends we’ve taken from the United States and Canada, and it is having worrying consequences that impact the tone and temperament in our suburbs, only a stones’ throw from Brisbane city.

A study last year found that while residents of inner-city areas are broadly preferring smaller cars, those in the outer suburbs are rushing out to buy mega-sized vehicles. The bigger the better.

But apart from the obvious challenge for those advocating a switch to zero-emissions cars, this trend is also driving neighbourhood disputes, and posing a genuine safety issue for pedestrians, cyclists and those riding scooters.

That’s been aggravated by the rise in both small-lot homes, meaning there are more houses in each street, and a rental affordability crisis where more people are packed into those homes, with limited garage space.

And don’t get me started on the tradies – both those with a genuine need for big work vehicles as well as the faux tradies, whose big car spend is driven by factors we’d probably need a psychologist to decipher.

But perhaps part of the purchase price could include a free lesson on how not to park over someone’s driveway, not to tail P-Platers, and to understand that the size of a vehicle is not always proportionate with road decency.

Experts are able to rationalise the Big Car Purchase. They say big seven-seaters, often used to drop children at school and doing the grocery shopping, are higher and have flat trays, making them more user-friendly than the old sedans.

But does that mean they are necessary? Or fit for city like Brisbane?

And should they face an extra levy for the convenience they allegedly promise?

Studies show that motorists are flocking to buy them, on the basis they see them as superior to smaller vehicles in terms of safety, prestige, space, handling and fun.

The mid-sized sedan, made famous by the Holden Kingswood and its arch-rival Ford Falcon, seen as the quintessential Aussie car only a few years ago, has now been pushed out of the garage by Range Rover SUV and 4WD beasts.

But where are we headed here? In two years, will the Hummer be a viable family car option? What about a second-hand school bus for that family of five with lots of friends?

Will manufacturers, whose marketing is fuelling this trend, see even more opportunity to make bigger and faster and more powerful travelling weapons?

Government policy has been absent here; perhaps even encouraging the development of bigger cars.

But it’s time to put a foot on the brake. And that should look at imposing extra levies on those travelling our streets in cars the size of trucks.