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Car Insurance -
Rising fuel means less traffic than ever - 16/06/2008 |
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Stop the press. Car traffic is falling and fallling fast. Records have shown that it has dropped by 4% across the UK last year, the reason being the escalating price of motoring.
"Fuel costs, not the weather, are most likely to affect cars on the road Mr Greig said. "And record fuel prices, especially for drivers of diesels, have wiped out the promised financial benefits of driving a new, fuel-efficient car."
Statistics have revealed that five years ago it cost just less than £80 to travel 1000 miles in a diesel Ford Focus, in fuel alone. Now the same journey would set drivers back more than £120. And those with petrol cars aren't immune to filling station hikes. A 1000-mile trip in 2003 would have used up £106 worth of petrol in a Focus. In 2008, the price would be £146.
"Traffic is not growing as fast as it did in the past," Mr Greig continued. "That has been put down mainly to the fact that everybody who wanted a car has now probably got one, but it's also because of the way congestion limits how much people can use their cars.
"Some people say every bubble bursts," Mr Greig said. "I think this bubble will take a lot more time to burst. There is underlying demand which is outstripping supply. There is no shortage of fuel. Everybody has as much as they need. It is just that they are using every drop that is coming out from under the ground at the moment."
Iain Docherty of Glasgow University, one of the country's leading authorities on transport commented, "Academics have for years talked about decoupling' economic growth from traffic growth, the only time this has happened was when we had the fuel tax escalator in the late-1990s, when traffic growth stopped and economic growth continued at trend (about 2.8%).
"If this is happening again because of rising raw oil prices rather than rising petrol taxes, then this may well prove that the economy can continue to grow at the same time as we can be weaned off our cars. "It might not be pretty, but it is possible, without too much - or even any - national economic pain."
"The car is still king," said one transport source yesterday. "But its crown ain't shiny any more."
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