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Do you see your car as a vehicle for gossip? Recent research from Edinburgh University indicates just that- the car fosters a degree of intimacy between occupants leading them to feel comfortable having meaningful conversations.
The research was discussed on BBC Radio 4, where a female cab driver reinforced this message by saying that cab passengers feel at ease and often so much so that they feel they can offload their problems.
The idea of a captive audience is guaranteed in a car since there is nowhere to run- you’re sitting side by side with relatively few other distractions compared with the office or home.
With the absence of eavesdroppers and the exucse for no eye contact with your converser- since drivers should be keeping their eye on the road- people supposedly feel comfortable enough to air grievances and discuss deep feelings that in other situations, or rather locations, they do not feel able to express. How distracting having a deep and meaningful conversation is however, remains unsolved.
A fungus found in a rainforest in Patagonia, South America, could prove to be the answer to our green fuel prayers.
The fungus- Gliocladium roseum, which grows inside the ulmo tree, produces a mixture of hydrocarbon molecules that a practically identical to diesel. Other organisms such as algae, also make chemicals similar to those found in the fungus, however none produce such high energy density.
The hydrocarbon mixture is so spot-on in fact, that it is believed it could be used in a diesel engine without any modification!
This discovery, despite requiring more research to the definite costs and benefits, provides hope for a truely green fuel, in the midst of concerns over the sustainability of biofuels. Biofuels have come under criticism in recent months regarding the competition they cause for arable land, which affects food production and raises food prices, and also as to whether they proivide net savings in greenhouse gases.
Source: The Guardian, Scientists discover Patagonian diesel that grows on trees, 4/11/08
A billion pounds of public transport fare cuts would reduce car travel by less than half a percent, according to the Royal Automobile Club Foundation’s latest research paper, ‘Public Transport Effects on Road Traffic: Potential and Limitations’ published today* (24).
The Foundation’s paper finds that even with significant increases in investment the scope for switching from private to public transport remains limited because different types of transport serve discrete markets.
Making public transport cheaper by increasing fare subsidies could reduce car traffic – but several billions of pounds would be needed every year to have a measurable impact. The RAC Foundation has calculated that cutting fares by injecting a £1bn in subsidies to bus or rail travel would only reduce car travel (driver and passenger) by less than half a percent.
The report questions whether the public transport network could cope with a surge in growth. The railway network is already congested and existing overcrowding must be tackled before additional passengers can be encouraged to swap the road for the rails. A new High Speed Train line from London to Glasgow would reduce motorway traffic in the corridor by up to 5% – 7%; but this costly venture, would mostly replace travel by air.
Parking for travellers using commuter or long distance trains can reduce road traffic on main routes in and out of our large cities. However, lack of sufficient affordable parking, as well as crowded trains, limits its potential. Intercity park and ride almost certainly encourages the use of rail and a small reduction in long distance car travel can result.
Improved local bus services would only stop a limited number of people travelling between towns in the car. Express coaches have some potential but they require fast and reliable intercity routes to be effective.
Stephen Glaister, Director of the RAC Foundation says ‘Public transport is important but it will not solve our transport problems. Even if billions of pounds more than the UK is currently spending were available and spent wholly on public transport it would only have a marginal impact on getting people out of their cars.’
‘Motorists already pay in excess of £45 billion per year in motoring taxes. Many will say that the cost of motoring is too low and that it needs to be increased to make public transport attractive. The truth is that public transport will only ever be suitable for certain trips and certain markets, and the private car will remain the dominant form of transport. Rather than pricing people out of the market for car use, we need to develop a whole new system for paying for motoring, which supports the development of public transport, pays attention to vehicle emissions and allows people real choice when making their journeys’.
* The RAC Foundation’s paper Public Transport Effects on Road Traffic: Potential and Limitations’ was prepared for the RAC Foundation by David Bayliss OBE. The paper is available on the Foundation’s website to download.
A scheme to encourage the scrapping of old cars to increase the rate at which motorists trade them for newer, more fuel-efficient models, could achieve environmental benefits according to new research published last week by the Royal Automobile Club Foundation.
The report, Car Ownership in Great Britain*, concludes that financial encouragement for car owners to scrap older vehicles could encourage fleet renewal, but intervention must be done carefully if the vehicle market is not to be distorted. The report relates to use of vehicles but policy must also take account of the environmental implications involved in the manufacture of new vehicles.
The research shows that in the UK, to reduce emissions, the ideal age to incentivise car scrappage would be for 17-18 year old cars. Such a scheme would remove most of the last non-catalytic cars. Incentivising the scrappage of younger cars would only result in payment being made for cars which are going to be scrapped in large numbers anyway.
Encouraging motorists to switch to newer models is a vital part of the fight to cut carbon emissions from road transport. The average new car emits 3.8% less carbon than just 12 months ago (158.6g/km, down from 164.9g/km at the end of 2007) and 16.4% less than the in 1997 (189.8g/km)**.
Despite this, tax changes announced in the March budget, including the introduction of a “showroom tax,” will make buying a new vehicle more expensive. The Treasury’s decision to raise Vehicle Excise Duty retrospectively also increases the financial burden of owning the more fuel-hungry older cars, leaving motorists stuck with inefficient vehicles.
The credit crunch is also slowing the rate at which people buy new cars, with sales falling for the last five months***.
The RAC Foundation believes that a carefully-designed scrappage scheme would have a double benefit of boosting the new and second hand car industry, whilst helping to make road transport greener by removing the most-polluting vehicles from the road.
According to the report, cars are scrapped for four main reasons:-
· The car is too expensive to repair
· The car has been in an accident
· The car was not worth very much money
· The car had stopped working
Scrapped cars are not normally replaced by brand new models, but by vehicles typically three to four years younger than the ones scrapped. A vehicle purchased brand new typically replaces a three year old car which has been traded in on the basis of age and mileage. Most new cars are traded in within 4 years.
The Foundation commissioned the report after scrappage was recommended by the Environmental Audit Committee**** as a means of encouraging “lower income households … to trade in their cars for low emission replacements,” in order to offer an informed contribution to the debate.
Schemes can offer payments not linked to further action by the car owner, or payments conditional on purchase of a less-polluting newer car. The RAC Foundation’s report concludes that in the UK, it would not be necessary to link the incentive to buying a new car as the natural dynamics of the car market will lead to the owners buying a car three or four years younger than the one scrapped, which in turn would lead to a ripple effect of car purchases up the age chain of the vehicle parc.
The Foundation has rejected the alternatives of higher taxes on older cars, calculated on the basis of their emissions; or more rigorous annual inspection routines which make older cars more expensive to maintain, as these will place a heavier financial burden on the owners of older cars, who tend to be lower income motorists in the first place.
Commenting, RAC Foundation Director Stephen Glaister said: “Making it affordable for motorists to scrap clapped-out cars and opt instead for a cleaner, more fuel-efficient and more reliable vehicle could be a way for the Government to support greener motoring. This study identifies a number of countries that have tried scrappage schemes and offers important new evidence to help design a balanced and effective scheme for Britain. This is an essential ingredient of a proper “dust-to-dust” emissions assessment.”
“Motorists can’t afford to be on the receiving end of another muddled, poorly thought out scheme like the VED proposals unveiled in March. Any scrappage scheme should be further researched before implementation in order to benefit the environment, motorists and manufacturers, without distorting the market.”
Sources:
* Car Ownership in Great Britain. Prepared for the RAC Foundation by David Leibling.
**SMMT, ninth annual sustainability report, 2008
*** SMMT figures reported in http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/oct/06/automotive.creditcrunch
**** Vehicle Excise Duty as an Environmental Tax: “We recommend that the Treasury urgently reviews and consults on how lower income households could be economically supported to trade in their cars for low emission replacements. In particular, we recommend that the Treasury urgently examines the proposal for a “car scrappage scheme”, which would provide payments in return for taking high emission cars off the road. In any scheme that were implemented, it would be important to ensure that high emission vehicles were genuinely scrapped—with as much of their materials recycled as possible—rather than allowed to stay on the road under different ownership, for instance in another country. (Paragraph 38)”
The latest research on household transport trends in Scotland has revealed some interesting results:
The School Run: A fall in the proportion of Scots walking to school (3.4% drop) although a decrease was also recorded for the proportion of kids taken to school by car (3.2%). However, fear not for the fitness of these wee youngsters, because the majority of journeys to school are still being made on foot- 53%. In addition, public transport was not a hugely popular choice for the school run being described as “inconvenient” by 38%.
The Commute to Work: Fewer commuters in Scotland are walking to work- just 12%, which is a 2% fall since 2006, whilst the percentage driving to work increased by 5.5% between 1999 and 2006. Household income was found to affect travel mode, with 45% of commuters from households with incomes up to £10k/annum taking the car and double the proportion of households (80%) with at least 4 times the annual income (up to £40k) driving to work.
Home Working: As with the rest of the UK, the number of adults working from home has been gradually increasing as more and more people strive for a better life- work balance and with less time being spent on the often stressful and time consuming commute. Across the UK as a whole, the National Travel Survey (2007) highlighted an income based barrier to this home set up, with people living in the highest income households being far more likely to be able to work from home (33%) than those living in the lowest income households (10%).
Lost? When asked about journey planning for the previous month, the most popular method of finding directions was the good old-fashioned road map method (19%) followed by 11% having used route planning software or an Internet journey planner and just 8% asking a friend.
Journey type: Having a car was seen as paramount to 90% of the drivers who did their shopping at supermarkets, as they couldn’t conceive of the idea of using another means of transport for this household chore.
Road Pricing, could be part of the solution to the nation’s transport problems according to the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) ‘The state of the nation: Transport’ report, launched yesterday.
A poll commissioned by the ICE found that 60% of the UK population think that road user charging is fairer than car tax, when it comes to reducing CO2 emissions and improving transport.
The Foundation has long supported a national system of road pricing, to help elievate congestion, provide a better transport network and refocus the cost of motoring onto use, rather than the ownership of cars. Since the infamous No. 10 petition in early 2007, which attracted over 1.8 million signatures against the concept of road pricing, there has been little political or public support for the idea, but this new research signifies that opinion is changing once again.
Source: ICE – http://www.ice.org.uk/state_of_the_nation/index.asp
Over two thirds of accidents and almost half of all road deaths occur in our towns and cities*, according to the RAC Foundation, who are today highlighting the dangers of texting whilst driving in urban areas in support of European Road Safety Day** (13)
Recent research by the UK’s Transport Research Laboratory commissioned by the RAC Foundation*** found that the dual task of writing a text message whilst driving significantly impaired driving ability. This has serious consequences for town centre and city driving where there are more pedestrians and cyclists.
Reaction times in the simulator study increased from 1.2 to 1.6 seconds when drivers were texting, and their ability to see hazards decreased. Drivers tended to reduce their speeds but in real city driving situations this type of behaviour would cause difficulties.
96% of pedestrian and 93% of cyclist casualties occur in built up areas and ‘failure to look’ is the single largest contributory factor in accidents, present in 35% of cases*. The Foundation is urging motorists, especially those in London, the North West and West Midlands where urban casualties make up a significant proportion of all road accidents****, to ensure they are not distracted by mobile phones whilst driving.
Elizabeth Dainton, Research Development Manager of the RAC Foundation says:
“The distraction caused by sending or reading text messages whilst driving has serious implications for road safety. Being distracted by a mobile phone significantly reduces a driver’s awareness and reaction times.”
“On fast changing urban roads, where more people are walking or cycling, texting, even whilst stationary in traffic, can result in distraction that leads to an accident. Where driving is concerned- there’s no such thing as safe text”
* Department for Transport (2008) Road Casualty Statistics 2007 Edition
** About European Road Safety Day
The European Union has set itself the target to halve the number of fatalities on our roads – from 54 000 to 27 000 – between 2001 and 2010. In order to raise awareness, to give visibility to best local practices and to offer an opportunity to work together for safer roads in Europe the Commission has established a European Road Safety Day. The second road safety day will be celebrated on 13 October 2008 and will address the subject of “Road Safety in our Cities”. The main event will take place in Paris, at the “Espace Grande Arche”, in the business district of La Défense. For more information please visit: http://ec.europa.eu/transport/roadsafety/road_safety_days/index_2008_en.htm
*** The Effect of Text Messaging on Driver Behaviour, A simulator study, N. Reed and R. Robbins, Transport Research Laboratory, September 2008
**** Proportion of all casualties by region, occurring on built-up roads. Source: Department for Transport (2008) Road Casualty Statistics 2007 Edition.
London: 96%
North West: 77%
West Midlands: 73%
Yorkshire and Humber: 72%
Average for Great Britain: 68%
North East: 65%
South East: 62%
East Midlands: 58%
South West: 56%
East of England: 55%
A new report commissioned by NatCen has uncovered the feelings of the British public about the link between driving and the environment.
Beliefs….
8 in 10 people agreed with the statement that current levels of car use are having a serious effect on climate change, and 6 in 10 said they believed individual action can make a difference.
Reality…
Almost half of drivers said that they would be willing to reduce their car use for short journeys and had the capacity to follow this through, whilst 1 in 4 people said that they wouldn’t even consider the notion of leaving their car in the driveway. Middle groups also arose with 12% of drivers being in two minds about changing their ways but admitting that were able to do so. On the other hand, 18% said that they were willing to cut down on their car use but felt that they were unable to do so.
The RAC Foundation supports the use of sustainable travel and stresses that the relationship between cars and environmental damage is more complex than restraining use. Lower carbon cars, greener fuels, eco-driving and car sharing can all do their bit to reduce emissions if giving up the car completely is not an option.
Those who make use of their local bus service are too often faced with the conundrum of whether to wait for a late bus, take the car or walk to their destination if it is near enough to do so.
The California Institute for Technology have researched into this question and have found that it is almost always better to sit down and wait for the bus rather than walk (the car was not included in the equation!). Complex equations were used to devise and back-up this theory, which stood up to all circumstances appart from if there is fewer than one bus per hour – which is unfortunately often the case in more rural parts of the UK.
This research provides some good advice when dealing with the often unrealiable bus service in the UK, but lets hope this theory is used less as the Government’s promised bus service improvements come on stream. Without reliability and service improvements the default option for the majority continue to be the car – where waiting does certainly not come into the equation.
(Source: The Mail 24th January 2008)
Will a new generation of multi-taskers be safer on the roads?
January 17, 2008 in Comment, Research, too much information? | by elizabethdainton | Leave a comment
What will happen when the new ‘multi-tasking’ generation are old enough to buy and drive a car? This was one of the questions that came to mind after reading an article in Wednesday’s Guardian, which discussed new research from Childwise, which looks at how children make use of their time.
The study of 1,150 five to sixteen year olds found that 79% of children had a TV in their own room and 58% watched TV during the evening meal. It also found that children, due to the greater availability of multi-media were not paying one activity their whole attention, and could be found flicking channels, surfing the web and chatting to friends all at the same time.
This new approach to activity management may well have implications beyond childhood. If the adults of tommorrow are more able to multi-task will it mean that they can juggle all the distractions in a car, such as sat navs, children, radios and phones? Or will it mean that they do not pay sufficient attention to any part of the driving activity?
We will obviously have to wait and see what impact of these new trends in activity attention, but if a future contains cars that drive themselves (as has been recently reported and argued) the new generation of drivers are likely to feel right at home in what will be a multi-media rich environment.
Source: The Guardian 16th January 2008 – Life through a lense: how Britain’s children eat, sleep and breathe TV