JACK OF ALL TRADES
Driving Change Feature by Jack Woodcock Photography by Fortish
Nine years ago, as the first summer of the new millennium drew to a close, a handful of farmers and lorry drivers staged crippling fuel blockades across the country.
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shops, homes and even family and friends have become located further and further away from one another, making us all the more dependent on our cars which, in light of the impending oil crisis, can only mean one thing: trouble.
By the fifth day the protestors had slowed the flow to petrol stations down from 126 million litres a day to less than 5 and queues stretched for miles from the forecourts of petrol stations.
Or does it? Could this situation possibly be viewed as an opportunity? If we think of the car in the way we have been encouraged to throughout our lives, as the ultimate means to personal freedom, then no, the threat to our beloved car will seem like a crisis. However, perhaps there’s another way to see the automobile beyond the advertisers’ tinted spectacles of myth and mirage.
eople’s first reaction was to hit the shops and petrol stations. Within a day or two panic buying had become so frenzied that some suppliers started rationing. After just three days the BBC reported ‘the fuel crisis’ had brought ‘chaos to hospitals, ambulance services and pharmacies’ and the military was on standby. Sainsbury’s warned the Government that they could guarantee food for only a few more days.
Nine years on and the end of oil is upon us. Although global demand is rapidly increasing some scientists predict supplies will begin to fall in just a few years, some say they already are! One of the many effects of the quickening recession has been reduced investment into finding new oil fields. Right now we’re sitting on top of a time bomb. When it goes off it will signal the return of rocketing fuel prices and new problems of supply. What will this mean for a society that has been entirely reshaped by the car? With increased private ownership – to such an extent that it’s rare for a household not to own a car – our jobs,
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Including depreciation the average running costs of a vehicle go into the thousands. An example of a Renault Clio at www.whatprice.co.uk gives a figure of £2503. Apart from this huge financial cost, car owners have the hassle of being off road due to repairs, servicing and MOTs and the lurking problems of breakdowns, broken wing mirrors, bumps and scratches, chipped windscreens, MOT failure, losing the precious no-claims bonus, parking fees and parking fines, wheel clamping, speeding fines and penalty points. There’s also the daily grind of traffic jams, parking restrictions, rush hour, the school run, and exhaust and noise pollution affecting everyone, not just car owners.
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In fact, driving is the most polluting act an average citizen commits. It’s also the fastest growing source of domestic carbon emissions accounting for 22% of all UK CO2. Despite this, plans have recently been announced to spend up to 80% of transport budgets in the next five years on 92 major road-building schemes. Resources for these roads (and cars using them) need to be extracted from the earth creating further damage and depletion. And in the construction of cars we mustn’t forget the practice of ‘planned obsolescence’ where cars are designed to break in order to encourage you to buy new. What a waste! The impact on humans is another issue that needs to be considered. Every year, 1.3 million people around the world are killed and 34 times that number are injured in traffic accidents. By 2020, 17 million more could die and over 200 million could be seriously injured and permanently disabled on the world’s roads. In fact, the problem is such that according to the World Health Organization’s report, Global Burden of Disease and Injury, road trauma ranks with malaria, tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS as a leading global cause of death and disability. Cars are also associated with a host of health problems such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, motor neurone disease, cancer (including Leukemia),