Cars

Yet for many people driving is their first, and sometimes only choice, when it comes to getting around. But too many cars are not only bad for the planet, they are bad for our health, our wellbeing and the economy.

Air pollution

Air pollution is responsible for tens of thousands of UK deaths each year and children exposed to air pollution are at risk of life-limiting health problems. Switching away from petrol and diesel to cleaner fuels is helping to improve air quality but will not entirely solve the problem. Because much particulate matter doesn’t come from a car’s tailpipe, we also need to reduce the number of cars on our roads, yet the electric revolution is expected to do the opposite and add even more cars to the roads.

Congestion

Road congestion costs the UK economy billions a year and impacts on our health and wellbeing. We cannot build our way out of congestion with more and bigger roads because of a phenomenon called ‘induced traffic’. This means that the more road capacity we create, the more traffic uses it. This ’extra’ traffic means that the predicted congestion benefits of a new road are often quickly eroded. Traffic levels on bypassed roads can also rise faster than expected due to induced traffic, all of which means the hoped-for benefits of a new road can evaporate very quickly. The only way to reduce congestion is to have fewer cars on the roads.

Car dependency

For the millions of people who do not have access to a car – mainly older and younger people, disabled people and those on lower incomes – a society built around the car means they can end up neglected and excluded.

“Car dependency damages communities, affects our quality of life and has huge environmental consequences. We urgently need to address our car culture and give people more choice about how they move around”
Paul Tuohy, Campaign for Better Transport

Car clubs

Car clubs are a great alternative to individual car ownership and an important part of the sustainable transport mix, but we need more. We’d like to see the Government working with city mayors and local authorities to ensure that the policy, legal and financial framework is in place to bring car clubs to more places.

Electric vehicles

Cleaner fuels are of course a key component in reducing carbon emissions from transport. The Government has now set a date of 2035 for the end of the sale of new petrol and diesel cars, but it will still take another generation before all petrol and diesel cars are off the roads. And with electric vehicles projected to increase road traffic in the UK by more than 50 per cent, it will do nothing to tackle congestion or car dependency.

“Decarbonising transport should not be all about replacing fossil-fuelled vehicles with electric ones. More action is needed to limit traffic growth, shifting travel to public transport and active travel.” Climate Change Committee

Pay-As-You-Drive

The way motoring is taxed needs to change. As petrol and diesel are phased out and more people switch to zero-emission vehicles (ZEVs), the money raised by fuel tax is declining (not helped by fuel duty having been frozen for over a decade).

To address this, from April 2028 electric and hybrid drivers will begin to pay electric Vehicle Excise Duty or eVED for short. This will be levied on a per-mile basis (and at a half rate for hybrid drivers)  and should ensure that it remains cheaper to drive a ZEV than a more polluting vehicle.

Our research has shown that 65 per cent of the public believe it is fair for ZEV drivers to be taxed but at a lower rate than petrol and diesel drivers, versus only 19 per cent who disagree.

You can find out more about eVED and why it is important in our Q&A sheet.

If it is working well, in time, a pay-as-you-drive could be extended to petrol and diesel cars as a fairer replacement for fuel duty and vehicle excise duty.

Low Traffic Neighbourhoods

Low Traffic Neighbourhoods, or LTNs, aim to help boost sustainable transport and improve quality of life in urban areas by reducing car use and increasing walking and cycling levels. There is much evidence to suggest that LTNs bring real benefits to people’s local environments, benefiting people on low incomes and from ethnic minorities more. To prevent traffic being displaced to neighbouring roads, LTNs need to be a part of a wider strategy to move people towards greener and healthier ways to travel and work best alongside other measures, including safe walking and cycling routes, good public transport, car club provision and parking controls.

To ensure schemes are accessible and inclusive, they must be introduced after proper planning and consultation with local residents and businesses, and address the needs of disabled people in particular.

We want to see the negative impacts of cars tackled by:

• A government commitment to reducing the overall number of car trips
• More investment in public transport to provide a viable alternative to driving for more people
• Unfreezing fuel duty
• Reforming vehicle taxation with pay-as-you-drive extended to all cars as a fairer replacement for fuel duty and vehicle excise duty
• Reviewing the road building programme and focusing investment on sustainable transport and road maintenance instead
• Only building new roads if stringent emission reduction and sustainable transport provision criteria are met
• New developments to be built with good public transport links and walking and cycling facilities
• Local authorities supported to deliver more Clean Air Zones, low emission zones, school streets and other schemes that can help deliver safer and healthier streets and improved public transport locally.