Fuel Prices Reducing Car Use

The AA has released figures today regarding how the rise in fuel prices is affecting everyday use of the car. After polling 17, 500 of their members, they found;

• 27% had cut back on other areas of spending
• 16% had decided to travel less by car
• 21% had done both

The average price of a litre of unleaded petrol in the UK is currently 113.01p while the average diesel price is 124.87p. That compares with average figures from three months ago of 104.02p for unleaded and 109.30p for diesel.

"I expect that motorists and diesel users in particular are going to pay more at the pumps in the coming weeks, possibly as soon as the bank holiday, from where they are now. The simple reason is that the wholesale price of oil sent diesel up 3 pence last week and there's more to come."
Ray Holloway, Director, Petrol Retailers Association

Department For Transport figures also support the AA's findings stating that traffic for the first quarter of 2008 had fallen 2% based on the same period last year. Assuming that CO2 reduced uniformly (this is not the case however) this would be an annual reduction of 1.8m tonnes.

Also in the news today is that commuters can spend up to 18 years of their working life travelling to and from work. Most people in Britain spend five years behind the wheel but the misery increases for travellers living in London where traffic chaos is worse.

The average person travelling to work now faces a three-hour round trip, according to the report by the AA and Work Wise UK.

The report aims to persuade bosses to allow more staff to work from home as congestion and delays cost Britain's economy £22billion a year.