The Road to a Better Future

The Tightly-Furled Umbrella takes a poke at our vehicle usage and wonders whether government intervention might not be a bad thing…

Picadilly Circus, with no performers

As the country has had plenty of time for thinking and general reflection on life’s values over the past few weeks, one of the things to come out of it is that a certain number of us plan to ‘do things differently’ in the future.

This could of course end up being no more binding than New Year resolutions – abandoned after a few weeks when we get tired of the effort – but one aspect that I'm really hoping will change is our use of motor vehicles. Make that 'overuse' of motor vehicles.

I would give anything to go into central London right now and experience the deserted streets with hardly any traffic and almost zero pollution. The peace and quiet would be novel too. But alas I'm not an essential worker (more ‘essentially lazy’ if anything) so I haven’t gone in, and it’s a bit far for me to justify as ‘exercise’.

Traffic cameras showing nearly empty roads on a weekday

But that annoyance apart, it would be wonderful to think that our cities’ streets might be a tad quieter and less congested post-pandemic due to a new realisation that, hey, maybe we don’t need to take the car out quite so often after all. Recent research indicates this could indeed be the case.

According to the UK government, data recently recorded at 275 automated sites show that journeys in vehicles are now around 35% to 45% of the usual level, and even that takes into account ‘creep’. (No, that's not the strange guy who drives past your place looking weirdly at your house – in this instance it means our vehicle usage has slowly crept back up since lockdown was introduced). The Automobile Association has reportedly said traffic volumes in Britain are now 'akin to those in the early 1970s' when they were just one-third of what they are today.

But this is obviously due to the government lockdown restrictions rather than any voluntary commitment on the part of vehicle owners to ‘go green’ or use their cars less for a better world. That said, another recent survey shows that many people are – post-pandemic regulations – expecting their use of buses and trains will drop and, importantly, 24% of those plan to work from home more.

Should the survey results translate into actual changes in behaviours, this could mean we’ll see much less traffic on the roads, drops in air pollution, fewer accidents, and less reliance as an economy on oil and petroleum products. The roads will become a bit safer for cyclists too.

So rather than wait for a voluntary change in behaviour could the government not instead legislate for fewer vehicles on the road? It’s been done before overseas, but did it work, and could it work here?

Flashback to New Zealand, 1979 - the country was facing an oil crisis where imports had become prohibitively costly, with OPEC raising the cost per barrel from US$12 to $19 during the first half of that year. Worse perhaps was the Iranian Revolution, which essentially shut down Iran’s oil industry - 5.7 million barrels per day were withdrawn from the world supply.

So, abandoning sheep shearing contests and leaving their pavlovas to go soggy the Kiwi government leapt into action and introduced the novel concept of ‘carless days’ on 30 July. They also reduced the open road speed limit from 62mph to 50mph.

The scheme – designed to reduce the nation’s demand for, and reliance on, oil imports - required those with private vehicles to nominate one day of the week on which they would not drive their vehicles. This was enforced with the introduction of heavy fines for those caught driving on their selected day. (There were exceptions for rural travel where public transport was almost non-existent, and ‘essential travel’ as in today’s lockdown) The carless days scheme applied only to petrol-powered vehicles and those weighing less than 4,400lbs. The restriction didn’t apply to motorbikes, scooters or mopeds.

NZ's carless day sticker selection. Image: Facebook

Less than a year after it began the scheme was scrapped, partly because it wasn’t popular but also because it didn’t reduce petrol consumption very much. (The reduced speed limit remained in place for a while longer) In principle carless days should have had an impact; private vehicle usage could have dropped by approximately one-seventh, but Kiwis are an inventive lot and many found ways of getting round the restrictions. Owning a second car was one of them (some bought a second vehicle just to avoid the scheme) while others purchased motorbikes.

A scathing newspaper column from the day also shows that an estimated 25 percent of Kiwis had successfully applied for legal exemptions to the scheme.

Obviously it wasn't working...

There’s a memory shared on Wikipedia of a bloke with a motorbike who could sometimes be found riding with his two flatmates as pillion passengers... plus a dog. A few clever Kiwis realised that if you applied for two different day stickers you could cover them in cling-film and easily attach or detach them from your windscreen according to whatever day of the week it wasn’t. Legally you were supposed to have your nominated sticker permanently attached.

But there are other stories – rather like those today from people feeling guilty about flouting the lockdown regulations – where motorists who drove their cars on their nominated carless day ended up feeling blameworthy and embarrassed. In short, there was a lack of engagement with and commitment to the scheme.

Accepted behaviour. 
Image: Wikimedia Commons

It’s a fact that if regulations of any sort are introduced some people will always find a way around them, but there are certain aspects of motoring where the culture has changed to match and support legislation, such as anti drink-driving, and the wearing of seat belts. So with the right approach to education, a groundswell of support in society, and enforcement and fines or points on your licence for flouting the law, behaviours can change. For carless days to be accepted today the concept would have to become the social norm.

So maybe post-pandemic would be a good time for the UK government to learn from New Zealand’s wobbly carless days scheme and introduce a better and more robust scheme here. Given that many people have realised during lockdown that they actually don’t need to drive their vehicles every day, this could be the perfect opportunity to permanently reduce the volume of traffic on our congested roads. The engagement and commitment might already be there.

Or is it a good time to buy shares in cling-film maybe?