The Rising Cost of Motoring

I came across an interesting article on walesonline.co.uk about the decline in car driving in Wales. Until 2007 the miles driven by Welsh motorists had been increasing, with a record 13.9 billion miles covered that year. By 2010 that had fallen to 13.3 billion miles. A similar trend is happening all over the UK with a 3% decline in “car use” since the peak and a 15% increase in cycling. The cause is the rising price of fuel. Motoring is becoming more expensive.

In the late 1990s during the dot com bubble, I worked for a Dublin based dot com business. I worked mostly from home, but had to go to Dublin at least once a week, a return journey of 130 miles. At the time I was driving a 1300 cc Toyota Starlet, from empty the fuel tank could be filled for ten Irish pounds. If I drove for economy this would take me to Dublin and back twice. So my daily commute of 130 miles cost me five pounds, the equivalent of perhaps six euros now.

Our 1996 Nissan Micra

My mother still drives that same car and she tell me it now takes about 40 euros to fill it with fuel. On this basis car fuel is almost three and half time more expensive now than it was in the late 1990s. If I were still doing the same commute today it would now cost me twenty euros on fuel alone. Throw in new road toll charges and higher parking charges and it would now cost at least five times more to do that 130 mile commute than it did in the late 1990s. Luckily I no longer have to commute to Dublin.

We now drive a 1996 Nissan Micra, a small and very light car (750 kg) with a 1000 cc engine. When driven carefully on a long journey it is possible to get close to seventy miles a gallon with it. With insurance and car tax also cheap, this is about as cheap as modern motoring comes.

But like the average UK driver we are cutting our mileage as much as possible. I now use a bicyle for all short journeys. The nearest village is two miles away, this is where our local shop, bank, post office, filling station and pub are. I no longer use the car to travel there unless I need to carry something heavy home. I have weaned myself off the ridiculous habit of doing short journeys in a car.

I use the bike for going to the pub, to visit friends and go to parties in the local area. These events often involve the consumption of alcohol and I sometimes end up over the legal limit for taking a vehicle on a public road. The beauty of the bike over the car, is that I can push it home.