To think car ownership is out of control in the UK

[JacquesHarlow]

I fully expect to get a vast majority of "YABU" comments, but here goes:

Firstly, before I get flamed - I am a woman, a car owner, and yes I have a driveway now (though didn't before). I am a car enthusiast in terms of the enjoyment I've got from driving and I don't have an issue with "cars" per se.

What I have an issue with is how ridiculous Britain's councils and governments are on car ownership. How cheap car ownership is. How anyone can distort the living environment around them with their choices.

Have you driven down a suburban street lately, or even an urban one?

Small and narrow Victorian streets with lines of cars packed on either side, and only room for one vehicle to drive down it. Why so many cars? The houses have been there for 150 years. Why now?

And because so many people (often fellow women, annoyingly) don't ever like reversing, you find yourself caught in the middle, having to reverse right back to the end of the street to start again.

School runs are chaos - so many cars, parking up in illegal or careless ways, purely to save a short distance walking.

And the size of cars! Absurdly large vehicles which then take up more road space on the kerbside. Yeah it is "legal" but in a decade where theoretically we want to get better as a country environmentally, most people do not give two fucks as long as their precious DCs are "safe" (you're just as safe in a NCAP 5* rated Yaris as you are in a Merc GLS, but try telling that to people where I live).

So this is the madness of today:

Cars are SO much bigger. And thanks to PCP they're cheaper - and this is why I see so many cars where I live ,and up north when I visit, and everywhere else. The PCP monthlies thing keys right into the British obsession of wanting to look and feel wealthy. Years ago a Golf or an Audi A3 would be considered posh for a family. But why would I buy a Golf when my monthly payments could get me into something BIGGER!

The one thing that isn't bigger, is the United Kingdom. I've seen councils in London paint "parking lines" half on the pavement so that people can park up on either side to let cars past. I've seen people in these Discoveries and Defenders mount kerbs at drop off time without a thought or care for who might be behind them or even aware of this being an issue.

And you can have 1 household in a street of 20 houses own 5 cars. You do the maths as to how much of the available parking is then taken away.

Why are people so aggressive and discourteous in their car ownership? What are we going to do about this?

Some of us remember 20 or 30 years ago when you could drive to another street and not have to face a x5 barrelling towards you, parked cars either side? With a tiny woman peering over the steering wheel refusing to reverse back into the space immediately behind her? But powering through so that you, in your little hatchback, have to reverse 10 car lengths to accommodate her ego and lack of driving skill?

Our city and town streets are not made for X5s, Discoveries, Range Rover Sports, and god knows what else, to be parked along the kerbside blocking out the light into tiny terraced houses.

How do we put a stop to this? I love the Japanese principle in certain cities where you have to name a parking space you own or have access to before you buy a car. Could this work here?

AIBU? How will we ever wean ourselves off this 'bigger is better, and every member of my family must have a car' mentality?

It always amazes me how much some people want their (or in the OP’s case) lives controlled by the their government. That is such an alien concept to me.

No, I won't get rid of my car to allow me to talk about cars. This is a fatuous argument.

I am talking about a specific issue - the inability of councils and governments to control the built environment by ensuring parking is fair and not overrun.

I can only assume you live in a city or large town! I live on the edge of a small town in the SE; my local bus is 1 mile walk and runs every 2 hours.

And I'm sure @saltinesandcoffeecups that by never wishing for greater control, that the Government gives you everything you want and all of your "freedoms" are granted.

"Just admit it?!"

@JacquesHarlow 🤣🤣

https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/john_burroughs_121353

edited; quote initially incorrect

eta; https://thesaurus.plus/img/synonyms/348/bolshy.png

A family with 3 young children will need a large car - we had an X3 when ours were younger and we couldn’t have fit a third car seat in the back. Sitting in the middle as an adult was massively uncomfortable.
the reason behind the amount of cars per household is obvious, and has already been pointing out many times on here.
it may be frustrating to you, but I don’t see what can be done about it.

I absolutely can’t stand traffic, and will always walk if possible rather than join it. However, the school is a 10 minute walk away from us, high street is 15 minutes and I work from home so I don’t have the issue to trying to get in to the office on time, so I’m lucky with all of that. We are still a 3 vehicle family though.
My partner needs a work van, and we have a converted van for camping. Luckily, we have a drive for our daily vehicles and pay to keep the camper elsewhere.

My next door neighbours live on a street of small terraced Victorian houses. Think 11m wide houses. No parking spaces or driveways, just a CPZ. They have 4 cars and a van. For a 3 bed house. We have no car, but if we did it would be a fricking nightmare. I’m tempted to get an old banger to keep parked outside our house though just to prove a point. They are ridiculous.

If you want to roll back car ownership then some fairly fundamental shifts in our country would be needed.

for example, children must be allocated a school in walking distance or via a free bus (in a single journey less than 30 mins). Going to need a lot more investment in schools and transport.

Working hours, you need to force employers to allow parents to drop off and pick up their children or wrap around care and not discriminate if they need to drop hours or split shifts to do so. Would be massively unpopular with employers. Or you could cap a full time week to 30 hours to make it easier for parents to pick up from school and not need to drive there. Again we know massive unpopular with employers unless they are particular forward thinking.

Make car finance expensive. Add more taxes or stipulate a minimum interest rate. Would decimate the car industry and associated businesses that make components so unlikely to happen as would threaten jobs.

redesign civic centres - prioritising ease to walk or cycle to shops or amenities. Again, has been tried but failed as developers want to create segregated housing estates where there is no thought to integration to the local town or village. Assume for cheapness but also because there is no national vision for creating a nicer living environment.

i understand the country would be a nicer place with less cars. We all want a more leisurely life where we’re not rushing from a to b to get to work and other commitments. I just don’t know how you cut down on that. The car makes life easier when people are very busy and time poor.

Same here. There used to be a bus that went through the middle of our village, but they stopped it around 20 years ago, and now it's at least a mile's walk to the by pass main road, and then the bus goes all around the houses via two other villages before it finally gets to the city bus station, and that's still a mile's walk away from DS's school. Hence "door to door" is best part of 90 minutes to go around 6 miles.

Funny that you’ve posted that today. This morning I was walking to my local shops (under ten minute walk) with my earbuds in and I couldn’t hear a note because of one car after another thundering past me. I live in a small town, miles from the nearest city but the amount of traffic that has increased in the twenty years I’ve lived here is crazy. When I first came here from a big city in another county I used to be in wonder at how it was more like being in the 1950s (or how I’d imagine it to be). Now I feel like I’m back in the city I come from, relentless traffic noise wise. I just thank god I don’t live on a main street.

I’m not a car owner as I don’t need a car (and hate driving).

If you lived in a rural area you would not be questioning this. Anyway, I’ll bite:

Car ownership is not “cheap” and PCP is not good.

Public transport is poor in most places outside of key urban centres.

The school run issue is not caused by cars, it is caused by the school system allowing people to choose a school that is not walking distance and by both parents having to get to work and not having flex time to walk their kids to school.

Perhaps we could ban wealthy people from car ownership (they can afford taxis after all.) Then less well off people who live in narrow Victorian streets with cars on PCP could park on the drives or in the wide roads of the affluent?

The houses near me that have multiple cars generally have adult children living with them that can't afford to move out. (Housing crisis, cost of living etc) I'm not sure taking their cars away would be fair. We also live in an area where busses are few and far between and have to serve multiple villages so it takes an absolute age to get anywhere on them. Getting into the nearest city takes literally 3 times longer than it would in a car.

This just isn't true though. Why would you say that when you can use Google Gemini and find a bunch more cars in a few seconds?

The 2008 Citroen C3 generally has a width of 1667 mm (1.667 meters) for most hatchback variants.
Here are some modern cars (as of late 2024/early 2025 models) that are narrower or the same width as the 2008 Citroen C3 (1667 mm), along with their approximate widths:
Cars narrower than or equal to 1667 mm (1.667 meters):

• Citroen Ami: 1390 mm (1.39 meters) - Note: This is technically an electric quadricycle, not a full car, and has limited speed.
• Kia Picanto: 1595 mm (1.595 meters)
• Hyundai Inster: 1610 mm (1.61 meters) - An upcoming small electric car.
• Smart Fortwo: 1663 mm (1.663 meters)
• Fiat 500: (Various models exist, but many are around this width or slightly wider, e.g., the Fiat Panda is listed at 1.67m, so the 500 is likely similar or narrower)
• Toyota Aygo X: (Exact width not provided in immediate results, but often cited as one of the narrowest modern cars and likely falls under 1.67m)
• Mitsubishi Space Star: (Exact width not provided, but also a very small city car)
• Suzuki Swift: (Exact width not provided, but a compact supermini)
• MINI Cooper (3-door): (Exact width not provided, but often a narrow option)
• Hyundai i10: (Newer models are around 1680 mm, which is just slightly wider than the 2008 C3's narrowest variant, but some earlier modern iterations might be narrower) It's important to note that car widths are often measured without exterior mirrors. When comparing, it's always best to check the specific model and year's full dimensions for exact figures.

Brilliant post. Thank you. We agree with every word.

Our village is blighted by this, massive 4x4's outside tiny terraced cottages, his and hers Audi overhanging the pavements on the small estates. School run time is chaos. It's a struggle for the elderly and the disabled to get along the pavements because of things parked up on the kerbs. Trying to cross the road with a row of Range Rovers etc parked up is hazardous, because they're so high that it's impossible to see the oncoming traffic. There are way too many 4 car or 5 car households now.

Yes, we have 5 cars. One for me to go to work, one for DD(age 24)to go to work and one for dh when he's off on a project (he cycles when he can).
None of us work in a place that has good public transport. It would take me 3 buses and about 2.5 hours (because none of the infrequent buses line up) instead of 30 minutes drive. It would also cost far more.

But we actually have 5 drivers at home and although dd2 and ds don't need cars daily, they also have places they're committed to go that are either impossible or very difficult to go by public transport.

But 3 years ago I worked locally, dh's projects were far more local, dd wasn't working and we only had one car.

Car ownership isn't cheap. But public transport is far more expensive round here anyway.

I live in a small village. We have no buses and 1 train an hour to the nearest city. We tried to live without a car but after catching 3 trains and a bus just to visit my mother (a journey that you can drive in 30 minutes) and it costing £21 and to see my husbands mother it was 2 trains, a 25 minute walk and £11 (he is his mothers support as an only child) a journey that is 20 minutes to drive we realised we need a car.

I understand your frustartion with the on road parking but I do think it is really unfair for you to blame people who own the cars. Public transport is in shambles in most places outside the big cities so if a married couple do work in the opposite sides of the town, they would need two cars for commute. If they have a DC fresh out of uni who also works further away they also probably need a car. All these people have been forced into car ownership by poor/lack of public transport in their area. Where I leave, there is only two buses one at 7:05 and comes back at 4 in the afternoon. Not everyone fits into this schedule so most people need a car to move around. So with just this scenario, you can see how the entire area is forced into car ownership

Infrequent buses is a different issue, resolved by more people taking the bus and/or community bus schemes. Infrequent buses issues don't require people to lie by saying that buses take 1.5 hours to travel 6 miles. It's the sheer pointlessness of these sort of lies that is frustrating, because it's simply designed to shut down any discussion.

I agree there are too many cars and they’ve become too easy to own due to leases etc. However, you appear to be a misogynist so I have said YABU.

I agree with you to a point - my parents road is as you describe; not terraced Victorian but most houses have 2/3 cars and many also have a van or small camper van! Parking is on both sides of the kerb. Most people have also converted their front gardens to driveway although they can only fit max 2 cars depending on the style of the house. Some people STILL have front gardens and no driveway and park cars all their cars on the kerb which is mad.

Whats happening now is that some people are putting stones on the kerb / grass outside their houses to prevent people parking outside their house. Some people are adding discreet drop kerbs (illegally) to the pavement outside their house to allow them to park multiple cars in driveway without having to move the one blocking the dropped kerb.
Other people are smashing the kerb stones up and pouring gravel into sections of the grass and using that to bump up on so they can park in the road still when the width is tight as cars parked on kerb opposite.

It’s somewhat tolerable now although starting to look very unsightly to be honest. I think it will come to a head though as it’s not sustainable and there will be a point where there is zero space.

Currently the street I am talking about is families with young or post teen adults at home. There is one house that is being converted into a HMO which is just about to be finished - it’s caused a bit of an outrage as the maximum capacity is 14 people which is INSANE. The parking space for this house on the driveway is one car!

Also caused by amalgamation of schools and closure of small schools, so that, in villages for example, you now have a single large primary school covering several villages which used to each have their own school. Thus causing a lot of extra traffic between villages on narrow country roads at start/finish times, not to mention parking/congestion problems around the only school. Those are all people, some of whom, would have been within walking distance between home and school before the village schools were closed down.

Same applies with other amenities like libraries, shops, GP surgeries etc., likewise where they've closed down in villages & small towns thus meaning people have to travel to other towns & cities.

I live in a "big" village of some 7,000 inhabitants, so more of a small town than a village, and it basically has nothing left anymore in terms of local amenities. Just a Co-Op on the by pass road, a mile away across country fields and lanes from the village centre! All the life and amenities have been sucked out over the past 20-30 years. Bus route - gone, library - gone, GP surgery - gone, local private shops - gone.

It's not a fatuous argument. You have a car and you at least used to park in the street. You're complaining about people doing this. I live in a street of Victorian terraces. They're narrow. There are more houses than parking spaces as a car parking space is wider than the houses. It's not just people with 5 SUVs who are causing the problem - there isn't room for everyone to have a car and park it on the street. Many people therefore don't have cars. You're part of the problem, not part of the solution.

SUVs are the devils work in most instances, I’d support a ban or eye watering tax on those fuckers

better shared ownership schemes would help too, so you have a membership and access to a range of vehicles.

Another major factor is the weather. At the moment, a walk of a mile could be quite pleasant to get on a bus.

Come winter months, who really fancies a one mile walk in pissing rain, to spend their working day damp and cold. To then get on a bus and walk that same mile in pissing cold rain home.