#Queen reigns over motoring revolution as #car becomes king

During her sixty year reign the Queen has presided over a motoring revolution.

Since 1952 there has been a fourteen-fold increase in the number of vehicles on the road.

When Her Majesty ascended the throne there was just one car for every twenty people. That figure has soared to more than one car for every two people today.

Over the same period, the cost of buying a car has fallen significantly.

In 1952 the popular Morris Minor would have cost £631 (£14,200 in today’s money). By contrast the cheapest Ford Fiesta – the best-selling car in the UK in 2011 – costs £9,795.

Back in 1952 someone earning the average salary would have needed every penny from twenty months of (untaxed) wages to afford a Morris Minor. In 2012, an average-earner would need less than five months salary to purchase the Ford Fiesta.

Amongst the changes witnessed over the past sixty years:

Category	1952	2012	change
Population	50.2 million	62.3 million	24%
Cars per head of population	49.8 per 1000	553.8 per 1000	1106%
Number of vehicles	2.5 million	34.5 million	1380%
Number of households with access to a car or van	14%	75%	536%
Traffic (all motor vehicles)	38 billion miles	306 billion miles	805%
Road length	185,523 miles	244,977 miles	32%
Average mpg of bestselling car	36	51	42%
Bestselling car	Morris Minor	Ford Fiesta	-
Cost of bestselling car	£631 (£14,200 in today’s money)	£9,795	-31% (in today’s money)
Time taken for average worker to earn money needed to buy new car (before tax).[1]	20 months	4.5 months	-77.5%
Cost of a litre of petrol	11 old pence a litre (104.9p in today’s money)	140p	33% (in today’s money)
Number of people killed on the roads	4,706	1,900 (provisional figures for year ending September 2011)	-60%
Fatality rate on the roads per million head of population	93.7	30.5	-68%
Fatality rate on the roads per billion vehicle miles travelled	124	6	-95%

Note: All figures are GB unless otherwise stated.

But despite the profound shift over the past six decades in the way the British travel, the Queen has ensured that when it comes to transport some things never change – at least not in her own household.

Amongst the Queen’s collection of cars, the oldest is a straight-eight Rolls Royce Phantom IV built in 1950. It is still seen on regal duty, appearing at events such as Royal Ascot.

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[1] In 2011 the average gross annual salary in the UK for a full-time employee was £26,200

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#Parking ticket issued every 4.6 seconds. But what’s done with the cash?

Traffic wardens down, parking fines up. That’s the story in the figures obtained under freedom of information requests submitted to councils across the UK.

According to swiftcover.com – which obtained the data – there were 6.8 million tickets issued in 2011. That’s one every 4.6 seconds.

Yet there were fewer wardens in 2011 than 2010. 3,693 as compared to 3,882.

Of the tickets issued, one in four was disputed and of these 39% were overturned (down from 47% the previous year).

There are two points worthy of particular attention.

The first is the widely differing rate of success in appeals between councils.

In Bradford only 11% of appeals were granted, yet in Chichester that rose to 72%.

Are enforcers in West Sussex displaying a worrying lack of knowledge about the rules and regulations they are trying to uphold when they issue a ticket?

The second point of note is the £234 million raised from the fines. While many authorities actually run their parking operations at a loss, others make a handsome surplus and the question must again be asked as to what they do with the excess. The law says any money left after the parking provision bills have been paid has to be spent on transport or environmental services. This is a broad definition and the public will be left with the suspicion that some authorities see parking enforcement not as a way of managing congestion – which it should be – and more of a general revenue raiser to shore up budgets being cut by central government – which is illegal.

This has at least been recognised by the Local Government Minister Bob Neill who said: “There is no excuse for town halls using parking fines and motorists as cash cows. There are plenty of other ways for councils to raise extra income or make savings like better procurement and sharing back-office services.

“We want to see councils use parking to support the high street and help their local shops prosper. That’s why we have ended the last Government’s requirements to limit spaces, push up parking charges and encourage aggressive parking enforcement.”

Of course, if Mr Neil and his colleagues hadn’t cut the money allocated to councils then we wouldn’t be in this situation. But that’s the world we are in.

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Q. How many #accountants does it take to build a #road? A. 183

Interesting(?) fact of the day from Hansard.

Stephen Barclay: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport how many members of staff working for her Department had a recognised accountancy qualification in each of the last three years; and how many such staff (a) have the Associate Chartered Accountant (ACA) qualification and (b)are working towards a recognised accountancy qualification. [107989]

Norman Baker: The Department (including its seven executive agencies) has 183 staff with recognised accountancy qualifications, of whom 36 have ACA status. In addition, 25 staff are currently working towards a recognised accountancy qualification.

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Get more done in the office by staying at home. National Work from Home day #workwiseweek

Picture the scene. More people. More cars. More traffic. More congestion. Welcome to a vision of the UK in the not too distant future.

The numbers behind this scenario are of a scale that should worry us. The population is forecast to rise by ten million by 2035, with at least four million more cars in the vehicle fleet. Over the same time period – and despite a slight dip during the current recession – traffic is predicted to grow by 44% and the proportion of traffic travelling in very congested conditions will have doubled to 17%. Many places, predominantly those already notoriously well known for their backlogs, will see big increases in the number and duration of traffic jams.

In fact it is not that we have too little road capacity, it is just that we all want to use it at the same time, most notably in the morning rush-hour when car drivers on their way to work, fight it out with parents on the school run and those using buses, bikes, motorcycles and taxis to get to their destinations. Then there are the lorries and vans trying to deliver the goods to the shops that we all rely on.

Clearly the road network is as critically important to the smooth running of the nation as any other utility, yet compared to electricity, water, gas, telecoms, etc. it is often regarded by policy makers as the poor relation, with poor being the operative word. Drivers contribute £33 billion to the Exchequer each year in fuel duty and VED receipts alone. Throw in things like company car tax and VAT and the total soon climbs towards £50 billion. By contrast just £9 billion is spent maintaining and enhancing our highways and byways.

There are plenty of road schemes on the shelves of the Department for Transport that have been shown to offer good value for money and are ‘shovel ready’. Yet given the parlous state of the public finances not helped, ironically, by a predicted decline in the tax take from motoring taxation because of the greening of vehicles, it is hard to see that enough can be done to reduce the impending doom being predicted not by the RAC Foundation but in official figures. Anyway, we as an organisation have never advocated endless construction of new routes and concreting over the countryside.

Going forward we have to be more creative both as a country and as individuals when it comes to meeting and managing demand for travel. And if in the current climate government is unwilling or unable to significantly improve our travelling lives, then it is up to each of us to help ourselves.

Which is where Work Wise UK’s campaign to promote smarter working practices comes in. It is primarily aimed at reducing the need for people to travel to and for work, and to change commuter patterns: just the things needed to make better use of the roads we have.

Technological advancements mean many more people can now perfectly sensibly complete their work from home, or from remote locations, or even while mobile, often making it unnecessary to travel to a central office location on a daily basis. In addition to this changing attitude to working location, more and more employers are recognising the obvious inefficiency of requiring staff to be at their desks from nine-to-five, necessitating commuting when everyone else is doing the very same thing.

As major investment in significant new road capacity is unlikely, and possibly undesirable, so road usage has to be managed. New and evolving working practices, like those promoted by Work Wise UK, will reduce the overall level of work-related travel, and change the times at which people have to travel, cutting peak-time congestion not only on the roads but also across public transport, trains included.

If the warnings are to be believed, the much-heralded London Olympics and Paralympics will highlight the capacity issues on our roads and public transport systems and magnify the failings, imposing significantly increased usage particularly in and around the Capital where most of the venues are located. It presents an ideal opportunity to demonstrate how smarter working practices can have a real and demonstrable impact – if people heed the advice and work smarter over the summer then the roads and tube will be able to cope with the additional load. If they do not, then transport in zones 1 and 2 risks stalling.

The beauty of smarter working is that everyone is a winner; even those who cannot inject some flexibility into their daily routines. Each person who can stagger their journey or avoid making it all together is one less person those of us who are tied to rigid rush-hour travel patterns will have to fight for road space with every morning.

Now that must be something we all dream about.

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New app for #Highway Code breakers – rules of the road go mobile.

First published in 1931, at a cost of one penny, the Highway Code has now been issued as a smart phone app for £3.99 (available on iTunes).   Originally a ‘code of directions for the guidance of road users’ and updated many time since, the Highway Code is still the best road safety tool we have in the box. The code was issued in response to the number of casualties resulting from road traffic accidents.  In 1931 there were just over a million cars on the road but at over 7,000 the number of deaths on our roads was shocking.

In the 1930s pedestrians were considered to be little more than thoughtless obstructions in the road and for this reason the new Highway Code was addressed to them as well as to motorists. The situation is effectively described in Joe Moran’s ‘Crossing the road in Britain’,1931–1976 

Moran says, ‘(Pedestrians) were told not to ‘make a sudden dash into the carriageway’ and to avoid standing about in groups at blind corners where they might obscure a driver’s line of vision. The code thus established the important principle that pedestrians as well as drivers were responsible for road safety, and that all persons had ‘a right to use the highway and an obligation to respect the rights of others’.

This echoes the strong message the Highway Code still sends today: everyone – pedestrians, cyclists, motorcyclists, car drivers, lorry drivers, and donkey carts, has the right to use the highway. But to preserve our safety record everyone needs to play by the rules.  And that means learning them first. Buy the app now or go online and download the Highway Code for free. direct.gov.uk/highwaycode.

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Isn’t it ironic. Treasury needs to tax #green cars to stave off looming financial black hole…

The irony won’t be lost on motorists.

Even as we cope with an era of high fuel prices, and with predictions of significant traffic growth in the future, the Chancellor is confronted with a worrying drop off in fuel duty and VED revenue. The reason? The greening of the vehicle fleet brought about by more frugal petrol and diesel engines and the expected take-up of electric cars.

By 2029 the shortfall in motoring taxation will be about £13 billion (in today’s terms).

Unfortunately motorists should also be worried. Because however much we might like to think we are getting one over the Chancellor it seems implausible that he won’t come after with armed with a plan to maintain his income. Essentially there are three ways he could do so:

1)      Push up the rate of fuel duty significantly over and above inflation, perhaps by as much as 50% by 2029.

2)      Start taxing battery powered cars, but at the risk of stalling the decarbonisation of road transport as drivers take offence at paying large sums for new technology only to see the anticipated savings from lower running costs shrink.

3)      Introduce a whole new system of motoring taxation based on the idea of Pay As You Go (PAYG). That is, impose charges that are distance related but also bear some relation to levels of congestion. This would be an alternative to the current VED and fuel duty levies, not an addition to it.

The Institute for Fiscal Studies has no doubt that this third option is the one to go for. In a report commissioned by the RAC Foundation – Fuel for Thought: the what, why and how of motoring taxation – the IFS says PAYG would more closely associate charges to drivers with the ‘externalities’ they impose on the rest of society: air pollution, accidents, traffic jams, CO₂ emissions amongst them.

This is a thorny subject but one which needs to be tackled. To be fair to the Chancellor he has already taken some tentative steps, announcing in Budget 2012 that the VED bandings would be reviewed to ensure drivers continued to make a ‘fair contribution’ to the public finances even as cars become more eco-friendly.

Amongst the 35 million drivers in Great Britain the price of fuel is arguably as common a talking point as that other national obsession, the weather. Given the recent record pump prices and the fact that transport is the single biggest area of household expenditure, this is unsurprising. It would be good if politicians devoted as much time to the subject as voters.

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Keeping track of the latest road schemes.

More often than not blogs allow for comment, but on occasion they have a role to play as a place of record; such as now. It is sometimes hard to keep track of what transport announcements the Government makes, so to help I am putting below more details of the news this morning that six major road schemes are going forward for development. Though there is no commitment to then take the schemes forward to construction, it would be odd if the commitment of funds for development work did not then lead to shovels in the ground, especially given that these schemes are to a large extent known quantities.

“The development work – to be carried out over the next three years – will ensure that a ‘pipeline’ of future Highways Agency major infrastructure improvements will be maintained, contributing to future economic growth, and supporting Government’s National Infrastructure Plan. By developing these now, proposals will be in a good position to be considered for delivery in the early years of the next spending review period (post 2015).

“The six schemes are:

• M4 Junctions 3-12 managed motorway scheme; Thames Valley
• M25 Junction 30 / A13 congestion relief scheme, Thurrock;
• A19/A1058 Coast Road Junction improvement; North Tyneside
• A21 Tonbridge – Pembury widening; Kent
• A63 Castle Street improvements, Hull; and
• A160/A180 improvements, Immingham

“Roads Minister Mike Penning said:

“We are committed to tackling congestion, keeping traffic moving and supporting the UK economy, putting in money where it’s most needed and where the public will get a good return on investment.

“We have already announced around £3bn of investment to complete work on Highways Agency major road projects under construction and to allow work to start before March 2015 on 20 much-needed road improvement schemes.

“Today, I am confirming development work will be advanced on a further six schemes around the country. This means they will be in a good position to be selected for start of works in the early years of the next spending review period.”

“The development work will focus on designing and consulting on proposals, along with progressing any necessary statutory processes.

“Today’s announcement also marks the conclusion of a review process for four schemes – including the M4 J3-12 managed motorway scheme – from the 2010 Spending Review.

“The M3 Junctions 2-4a managed motorway scheme has already been added to the roads programme with a start of work date of 2013/14.

“The two remaining proposals, the M20 Junction 10a and M54 to M6/M6 Toll link road, will continue to be considered for future delivery along with other schemes.

“Those proposals not selected at this time to have their development work advanced are still good schemes that address clear problems, and the Department will continue to work with key stakeholders to drive down costs and maximise public value for money.

1. Schemes were assessed according to their economic case (Benefit Cost Ratio), how well they fit strategically with the needs of the network and the economy, and their readiness for construction. Advancing the development work of the six schemes does not guarantee that they will be funded; decisions about which schemes will enter the programme in the next period will be taken at the next spending review.
2. The investment to develop the schemes will come from efficiencies achieved by the Highways Agency in delivering improvements to major roads that are in the current roads programme.
3. The Highways Agency will be working through the optimum programme and final costs for the development of each scheme shortly and further announcements on next steps for each scheme will be made in due course.
4. In addition to the six schemes selected to have their development work funded, the Highways Agency are continuing to develop the A5 – M1 Link Road (Dunstable Northern Bypass) following the Government having secured £45 million private sector investment towards the scheme.”

 

 

 

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The end of #wheelclamping is nigh. Or is it? #Parking saga continues.

So that’s it.With the enactment today of the Protection of Freedoms Bill wheel clamping on private land will be banned from October. Or will it? The Protection of Freedoms Act allows for Local Authorities, the DVLA, the police, and all those with lawful authority to continue using wheel clamps. It is vital that motorists and landowners know just how lawful authority is defined and so far government isn’t saying.

Could it be the private companies who run the railways and allow us to park on their land? Could it be the National Parks, the Port Authorities, or any other body established by statute? Perhaps parish councils even?

The reality is that two years after Home Office Minister Lynne Featherstone MP first announced moves to introduce the ban in 2010 – and some twenty years since the Denver Boot first appeared on these shores, during which time tens of thousands of motorists have found their vehicles illegally immobilised with little interest shown by government – we are still in a state of confusion.

Countless hours of TV programming and radio debate, and an endless stream of column inches in the press, have been devoted to this source of misery to motorists. And yet it seems set to continue. BBC Watchdog producers must be counting their lucky stars.

Oh, and by the way, wheelclamping isn’t being banned in Northern Ireland at all. So if you are ‘just jumping in’ this summer and using a car, park carefully.

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