Scrappage schemes may be popular with car makers and many motorists, but they are usually as financially questionable as they are environmentally spurious. Sustaining the capacity to produce cars that consumers are unwilling to pay for in full distorts competition and inevitably creates the need for further and prolonged state intervention. After all, these sales have not been conjured from the…
It should come as no surprise that the significant drop in traffic on UK roads during lockdown resulted in a drop in casualties. In fact, there were an estimated 1,460 reported road deaths in 2020, down 17 per cent on 2019. However, while motorised traffic dropped, cycling increased and with it the number of deaths. The average cyclist fatalities for…
The UK is the last major European economy where e-scooters are still banned to use anywhere except on private land. However, the legal status of e-scooters isn’t stopping them from being bought in huge numbers. Nobody knows for certain how many e-scooters have been sold in the UK but Halfords has seen its own sales more than double over lockdown…
Ealing Council in London may yet regret its decision to this week tear out seven recently installed low-traffic neighbourhood schemes. While many local authorities around the UK acknowledge the environmental benefits of reducing traffic levels, Ealing Council, alongside fellow London councils Harrow, Hillingdon, Kensington & Chelsea, Redbridge, Sutton and Wandsworth) risk losing funding as a result of scrapping schemes prematurely.…
It’s been illegal to drive on the pavement since 1883. However, one of the reasons footways the length and breadth of the land have been obstructed by cars for the last 138 years is that police have to witness a car being driven on the pavement in order to enforce the law. Pavement parking; the pandemic we refuse to tackle…
