Do you think we are becoming more car dependent?

[Instaattheend]

No matter how many efforts to get people out of their cars and walking/cycling, town planning, and especially many of the new build estates popping up without infrastructure seem to be pushing us in the other direction.

I quit driving due to a surgery 2 years ago and apart from the dreadful mess the trains are in at the moment, I haven't looked back. I didn't change my diet, but becoming a ton fitter and slimmer was a nice side effect. I planned to return to using a vehicle but am in two minds now.

Granted, I have no children at home who need driving around, and I live close to some decent walks, but I have this feeling the way the country is heading, we are becoming less and less able to reduce car use.

Visiting my family last week I noticed my home town has become chock with traffic, most shops are out on retail parks now and there are very few cycling paths or places to walk. With so little attention to improving public transport I can't see this getting any better. And once you atart walking everywhere, you realise that there are more roads than pedestrian spaces in a large, typical town. And it stinks, which I never noticed so much when I was driving myself.

People discuss processed foods and sedentary jobs when looking for reasons to explain rising obesity, yet few people look at increasing car use as a factor.

I live in the West Country and public transport is better now than it was 20 years ago when we moved here, but we couldn’t manage without a car (couldn’t then and couldn’t now).

True, buses are batter where I am, too, but so many cancelled or striking trains services. It seems like it will never end.

I think there's also a thing in the UK where not driving is associated with being poor - and it's so far from the truth! Where I live there are a lot of walkers, but in some larger towns I'm familiar with there's more tension? Almost as if vehicle owners resent pedestrians having to exist.

I was almost hit by a car that sped through a pedestrian crossing recently so still a bit sore on that point!

YANBU, but the car is worshipped in this country. Another stupid idea imported from America.

Our bus service has been halved in the town and is virtually non existent in rural areas. It’s unreliable. I finally gave up on it in my 40s after three occasions in a row of waiting for over an hour for a bus in a dodgy area in the rain, and learnt to drive. Life changing.

It’s also to do with time. My daughters school is just over a mile away, a lovely stroll in fact but I can’t walk her then walk home then drive car to station (2 miles in opposite direction). I am not lazy but time poor

I don’t think it’s recent.

My son lives in a small northern city. The bus service is dire. 2 or3 mornings every week his bus to work doesn’t turn up, meaning he’s late for work, there is no late bus home from town so he can’t stay out to socialise past 9pm. Takes 2 hours to get to the retail park needed to change buses twice each way, which is a 10 minute direct drive by car. Getting home to us by train is a nightmare due to cancellations and it being a two hourly service so several times he’s had to abandon trips home.

He’s just bought a car!

The trains are I think improving where I am- sometimes you get a whole screen of 'on time'

I think the roads are busier recently than before COVID and more accidents on the motorway. Quite a bit of new housing locally could be a reason. Roadworks seem to take a long time to get done now which slows and diverts traffic. If people are working 2 jobs they maybe don't have time to walk or wait for public transport.

I love my car and I live in London . Safety for late night travel is a factor - and for example to visit a friend who lives 3 miles away it's a 20 min drive or 45 mins on public transport due to the awkward locations not close to stations

We live in London so we have never been dependant on a car - we use ours a few times a year really. Public transport can still be frustrating even here - buses are slow (due to so much other road traffic!) and will stop short of their destination randomly. Tubes are OK but not great in the baby/toddler years as it involves hauling the buggy down steps.

Planning laws around here are geared to discourage car use - a new build block of flats on our road won't be allowed to have resident's permits, and there are low traffic neighbourhoods and school streets. Our council have developed lots of cycling paths (no good for me as I'd need a Dutch-style carrier for the kids and cant fit one in our hallway).

For us living near good public transport was a dealbreaker when deciding where to live - I think if you want a car-free lifestyle then you choose to live somewhere with the infrastructure that makes that possible. Many families prefer the experience of using their own cars and prioritise living somewhere that enables that.

So @Instaattheend Answer me this. When there is snow what gets gritted
The roads or the pavements?

I don’t drive. I live in the North West and we have good buses and trains but not great. We went to Cornwall last summer and public transport in terms of buses and taxis were awful. One bus a day to get us somewhere and one back. Miss them and you’re stuck because there’s no taxi company, just a one man band taxi. We are going back this summer and are better prepared but those living there would have to drive to get anywhere.
We love the Peak District but the buses are rubbish and only on Sundays and bank holidays in some cases. It takes 3 times as long to get anywhere on public transport. You have to be organised and pray they are running as scheduled.
Anything local and we walk. I walk 50 miles a week and love it.

Car sales figures indicate the exact opposite.

I live in a village in the West Midlands, it’s between 4 large towns that are all around a 20-30 minute drive away, it’s also 10 minutes drive from the M6. It’s not a completely isolated rural area. However there’s 2 buses a day (8am and 11am) which take over an hour to get to one of those towns and 2 buses back (1pm and 4pm), they only run Monday to Friday. That’s why I am reliant on my car.

I couldn't manage without a car where I live. The bus service is very limited during the day and nonexistent at night, and the nearest train station is 6.5 miles away along national speed limit country lanes without pavements. We have a local volunteer car scheme to take people to doctor/hospital appointments as the buses are useless. If I lived in a town or city with decent public transport I'd use my car less.

I think the traffic has got worse since Covid. With more people working from home, there are far more cars parked up on residential streets during the day. This causes continuous traffic because cars have to give way all the time. This also means more people nipping out here and there locally. Prior to Covid a lot of cars were off the roads in station car parks or work place car parks. You’d only have local traffic at rush hours.

Ah, the irony of progress. We preach about sustainability, about healthier lifestyles, yet our actions push us further into the arms of dependency. We're told to walk, cycle, and embrace public transport, but when every new estate is designed with the car in mind and infrastructure that encourages driving, we're simply feeding the machine.

You hit the nail on the head: town planning is a major contributor to this growing dependence. New estates are popping up without proper pedestrian access, cycling paths, or connections to public transit. Developers build for the convenience of car owners, not for those who might want to live a car-free life. In fact, the very nature of our towns and cities has become a testament to this dependence. Roads, retail parks, and parking lots have taken precedence over green spaces, sidewalks, and cycling lanes.

But here's the kicker: while we continue to put up with traffic, crowded streets, and a decline in air quality, we lose the ability to see just how much this is shaping us. Your own experience, quitting driving and becoming healthier, is a small but powerful example of what could happen if we truly shifted away from car culture. You’re walking more, you’re fitter, and you’re more connected to your environment something that simply wouldn't be possible if you were trapped in your car.

The thing is, it’s not just about us. It's about future generations who will inherit a world where walking is a nuisance and cycling a rarity. We’ve built an infrastructure where getting in a car is the path of least resistance, and every new development just deepens our reliance. Public transport? It’s an afterthought. We're more likely to be stuck in traffic than to be sitting comfortably on a bus or train.

So, yes we’re becoming more car dependent. But it’s not inevitable. It’s a choice, made by the very systems that profit from our dependence. And if we continue to design our towns and cities for cars, we’ll be forever stuck in a cycle of congestion, pollution, and unhealthy living.

There is a new development of 1500 houses near us. They are proposing provision of an infants school within that development, but after age 7 the nearest schools are not within realistic walking nor cycling distance, and the development is not on a bus route. So how are the kids going to get to school? Yep, that’s right, even more cars on our already overcrowded roads.

I’ve never learned to drive so I’ve never really felt dependent on a car and we live in a town with pretty good public transport so I’ve just not really seen much point.

This same town is also now almost a year into the major roadworks removing a dual carriageway through our town to replace it with walking and cycle paths instead. Most of the locals are against it though because it’s seen as an overpriced cycle lane. I’m actually hoping as a pedestrian that it’ll be nice to walk along, but that still remains to be seen really. We still have a few months to go before I will find out for sure, and that’s if they finish on schedule.

DH does drive though so we do have a car if we need it. However just before Christmas he had some medical issues and was immediately told to stop driving. He only got the all clear a couple of weeks ago. It’s made us realise we could never live in a place where a car was a necessity because you don’t know how quickly things can change.

It seems to me that successive governments would rather invest in charging points for EVs over a decent bus service that connects all the country together. I also live in London with no need for a car, but I am thinking about moving away and Inwill have to learn to drive because the buses are fucking awful. My DParents live in a village and there’s a bus every hour from 7am to 6pm to the nearest town, after which you will have to pay for a taxi, which is about £40. Trains are just too expensive, so much so that it’s cheaper to fly from London to Manchester than go by rail. Utter madness. Yet where I live, EV charging points are popping up like herpes.

I don’t blame drivers or cars - I think the issue is that we are a society that are “in a hurry”. There are plenty of times whereby I would rather walk, but I have to cram in work, childcare for 2 children with very different schedules, the distance of key places and how difficult public transport can be with a buggy (and also how rude people can be especially during rush hour!) - Infact I learned how to drive because of how horribly I was treated when I had my first - bus passengers felt like they could comment on what I was doing wrong and I’d have to miss a few buses if they were full when I had the buggy - so with children car is definitely more convienient. However as a single person or when the kids are abit older, public transport and walking around is easier as you skip the traffic and it’s more scenic.

So I think you are asking the wrong question - it’s about what has changed in our lives that we rely on cars more.

the lack of good main street shopping options means more vehicle use (public shared bus or train).

YABU and frankly unrealistic.

Good for you that walking fits your needs.

Other people require cars because trains are shit, theres no bus services to where they work and for some, they can be travelling hundreds of miles a day.

Others need cars for medical appointments, or to ferry those that cannot walk etc.

Cars are needed for untold reasons There are times when I can travel 200+ a day for work to locations that are miles away from any other transport links and you expect me to walk?

Stop pushing what works for you on others.

We need more cars, not less = helps with jobs in the car industry too.

Walking does not.

I drive electric by choice it’s not a work incentive or anything.

the charging points are large less pointless, to charge my car overnight on a cheap tarriff costs £4. If I charged it on a motorway charge point it would be around £60. That’s why electric cars will never take off and kimi badenoch is right to scrap the net zero target.

Why does it seem like no one works anymore?my street used to just have the usual rush hour traffic,now it’s constant all bloody day,we have had traffic calming measures installed but that hasn’t worked,it’s making me want to move!