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British motorists in the slow lane: 40% cut down on driving because of price hikes
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Oh dear...
CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Debate!
"40% cut down on driving because of price hikes"
(12 posts)-
Posted 12 years ago #
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"Most alarmingly, almost 8 in 10 (79%) of those surveyed claimed to be making considerable changes to their day to day lifestyle, as a direct result of the rising costs of driving.
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Over four in ten (44%) were cutting down on driving in general and looking to other means such as public transport (20%), walking (32%) and cycling (5%) in a bid to relieve driving costs."OMG, THAT'S TERRIBLE!!!!! RUN FOR THE HILLS!
Posted 12 years ago # -
@ Min, No No No!!! Cycle for the hills, its more efficient!
Posted 12 years ago # -
Alarmingly :-)
Posted 12 years ago # -
Compared with a year ago, petrol is 3.4p cheaper and diesel 2.4p cheaper per litre (source: AA).
Inflation at somewhere under 5% means that in real terms, fuel is a further ~7p per litre cheaper than it was last year.
This begs the question: with fuel effectively 10p a litre cheaper than a year ago, why are people finding themselves 'forced' to cut down? It's costing less, people!
Posted 12 years ago # -
"...why are people finding themselves 'forced' to cut down?"
Maybe people have less money?
Posted 12 years ago # -
Food and electricity and stuff is going up too.
Posted 12 years ago # -
As wingpig and Min say - people have less money, and other prices are going up (food, electricity, gas, as well as most basic services - couple with savings/investments not being worth as much with many 'enjoying' an interest rate below inflation), and cutting back on using the car is easier than cutting back on essentials like food and heating.
Posted 12 years ago # -
Maybe people have less money?
Some people (newly unemployed, self employed) have less money. For folk in steady employment, their income is much the same as 5 years ago, but their ability to borrow is reduced. Many are in the same position as 5 years ago, EXCEPT they are paying off debts instead of 'releasing equity' in their homes (ie. borrowing money they don't really have).
So to be summarise, people are less able to borrow ridiculous amounts of cash secured against assets which are falling in value. Therefore they can't fritter away wads of wonga on holidays, cars and designer fripperies in quite the way they did in 2007.
Posted 12 years ago # -
Be that as it may, the point of the piece was that " as a direct result of the rising costs of driving" people were having to change behaviour. There have been "price hikes".
Well, there haven't - the cost of fuel is now going on for 10% cheaper than this time last year, regardless of the amount people earn this can't be attacked as a hike (or even a rise).
I grant you, getting all meta about it, that if the average income fell by more than the fall in fuel cost, it could be argued that the price of driving rose in real terms, but there's no suggestion of this.
Even when it comes to insurance premiums, a quick google found a recent BBC article saying there had been "a fall in the cost of the cheapest five premiums" across the country year-on-year, which is obviously an even bigger real-terms price cut.
Posted 12 years ago # -
@Dave, the point of the piece is clearly a fallacy. I was attempting to tackle why people feel they may have "less money" than before and therefore feel the need to economise.
Posted 12 years ago # -
[deleted because... well, quite random and off topic]
[and I don't want to miss out on this new forum trend]
Posted 12 years ago #
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