The commute by car problem isn’t going away

The car is king when it comes to convenient transportation; we aspire to own cars and they're recognised globally as a sign of wealth and freedom. But we’ve reached a tipping point - we now sit longer than ever in traffic every day, congestion is getting worse (costing $305bn in economic impact in 2017 in the US alone), air quality is getting to dangerous levels and we can’t find anywhere to park.

In the vast majority of cases, driving to work just isn’t smart anymore. The car commute isn’t smart for commuters, it’s not smart for employers, it’s not smart for property developers and it’s certainly not smart for municipalities. It creates problems that extend well beyond the obvious challenges with congestion and pollution; employers struggle to attract and retain staff, employees often arrive late and expansion is restricted by the need to build car parks and infrastructure.

The problem is profound and is showing no signs of easing. Even including those who work in London, close to 60% of the UK employed population drives to work (RAC Foundation). In many areas, such as the Midlands and Wales, the number is over 80%.

In a world where we spend an increasing amount of time sitting in traffic and the cost of car ownership is often as much as a quarter of household disposable income, why aren’t more people seeking alternatives?

The car is the ultimate form of convenience: when we drive our cars to work every day, we are in control; we choose the route, the schedule, the music, the temperature. No other form of transportation gets close to matching this experience

Alternatives don’t exist: for many, viable alternatives don’t exist at all. We’re naive to think the option of an overcrowded train and a bus with a clunky interchange is enough to convince people to get out of cars

They don’t see that they’re the problem: we moan about traffic but we don’t see that we’re the problem, despite the 4 empty seats around us

If we continue as we are, what the media frame as the ‘Death of Car Ownership’ is utter nonsense. So, what will it take to force people out of cars and into sustainable transportation?

Rider-centric design: transportation alternatives need to more closely match the convenience of the car; it needs to be more personalised for the individual rider, it needs to be incredibly easy to access and the onboard experience needs to allow the rider to make better use of their time

A joint-approach to design: no single transportation company can do it alone; in order to design alternatives that challenge the car for convenience and utility, transportation companies must work together (both public and private) with property developers, employers, municipalities and regulators. That includes a review of regulation, the public/private funding gap and the availability of mobility data.

No single transport company can replace the need to own a car; we need a much slicker way of combining different transport modes across micro-mobility, car share, bus/coach, train etc. And no, building a MaaS app doesn’t cut it, we need to go much further.

A joint-approach to incentivisation: breaking the car habit isn’t easy, even when there are good alternatives. We need plenty of carrots and plenty of sticks. There has been some great examples on a regional basis such as the workplace parking levy in Nottingham and the introduction of more bus lanes to give shared transport a compelling time differential on congested roads. But we need more action on a national level to catalyse the investment and change made in every region.

Stakeholders like property developers, employers and venues can play a part too. Choosing to invest in sustainable transport schemes instead of expanding car parks is a sensible decision both for short term needs and long term growth. Not only are car parks an inefficient use of space, reversing the car habit where it’s been made easy for people to park is even more challenging.

Whilst transformative technologies like AVs and 5G are developing, the problems we face with respect to congestion and air quality need to be addressed now. What other ideas do you have? Please comment below!