Mike Waters' Blog: 15 September - Tough times encourage good habits

Date: 15 September 2009

Mike Waters is senior insight & consultancy manager at Arval, the leading vehicle leasing and fleet management company.

The car is something that we rely on in the UK with car journeys far outweighing any other mode of transport. The car provides comfort, flexibility and can often be cheaper than public transport. Despite these benefits, one of the downsides is that in recent years traffic has been on the up, so sitting in a traffic jam has become a common occurrence.

However, new research shows that congestion in the UK has dropped by almost a third since the economic downturn began. It makes sense really - with more people unemployed there are less cars on the roads during rush hour which is making the drive to and from the office an easier one.

The recession is not just impacting work commuters and while traffic during rush hour is easing (which has led to an overall fall in congestion) volumes are increasing on certain days. Friday nights and bank holiday weekends have shown a marked increase as people holiday in the UK rather than abroad to save some money.

While on the surface some commuters are enjoying easier journeys to work because of reduced congestion levels, without a sustained change in driving habits it won't last. As the UK moves out of the downturn, which it will over the coming years, jobs will be created and heightened volumes of traffic will return to the roads.

The question is whether the UK will be in any sort of position to take advantage of this "congestion holiday" by improving infrastructure to deal with increased volumes of traffic when they return. Unfortunately I believe the answer has to be no. UK Governments for many years to come will have to deal with the cost of the recession so swinging cuts across all spending departments seem inevitable and transport will not be exempt. So if we are to avoid a return to the congested roads of the last few years it will be changes to personal habits that have to lead the way.

Redundancy has stopped some drivers from doing the daily commute while it has given others the nudge that they need to cut out unecessary journeys. For example some people are now working from home to reduce their fuel costs while others may be looking to car share. While this fall in congestion has not come through nice circumstances, it is important that the positive behaviours that have been forced upon us will continue into better times.

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