The following articles appeared in the Longford Leader from October 2007 as part of "How We Live Our Lives" series.

Road Transport

By Ray Hogan

In 1908 in Detroit , Michigan , the legendary Henry Ford foisted on an unsuspecting public the world's first mass-produced motor car. Dubbed the Model T and available in " any colour so long as it's black " this horseless carriage had, the twin virtues of being simple to operate and cheap to maintain. In little more than a decade it had colonised practically every American state, before setting out to conquer the entire planet.

Fast forward to the present and while the original of the species might be long now obsolete, it's descendents have increased, multiplied and not just because they're handy for getting from A to B - so, for that matter, is a donkey. The crucial thing about these figures is of course what they say about our society.

In Ireland , sales of new cars are on the rise with SIMI statistics revealing that a record number of cars left the showrooms in January and February 2007and sales are now up 5.4% on the same period in 2006.

In support of these trends, energy in transport has risen from 2Mtoe in 1990 to over 5Mtoe by 2005 and again we see a strong rise from the mid 1990's with diesel fuel showing the greatest rise from just over 33% of the total volume to almost 47%, whereas petrol dropped from 47% to 34%. We have now doubled our fuel consumption of both of these fuels in the past 15 year.

While we sometimes tend to focus our attention on our private car mode of transport as the main culprit in this sector, it is in fact road freight which recorded the highest growth rate at 9% per annum or 264% on 1990 figures or 65% of the total energy usage against a growth rate of 107% for private cars over the 15 year period.

The number of private cars in Ireland exceeded 2 million in 2004 and from the 2006 Census we note that four out of every five households had at least one car, with car ownership was higher in rural areas (88.6%) than in urban areas (75.2%). Meath (89.8%) had the highest proportion of households with at least one car while Dublin City (59.5%) had the lowest.

The private car still remains the main means of transport for Irish workers. Just over 57% of all workers drove to work by car in 2006, up from 55% just four years earlier. Taken in combination with workers who drove vans or Lorries to work, almost 65% of Irish workers drove to work in 2006, representing an additional 225,000 work related car users compared with 2002.

The purchasing patterns also show how we have changed over time. Cars with an engine size of 1.2 litres or less are showing a decline, whereas 1.7 to 1.9 litres have the largest share and followed by 1.9 or greater. The number of cars in this latter sector grew by almost 240% from 1990 to 2005.

Car Engine Size Graph

SEI Report (2006) "Energy in Transport - Trends and Influencing Factors"

However, on the road transport side we have seen a massive increase in tonnage of goods transported which has increased from 85 million tonnes to 283 million tonnes, over the 10-year period to 2004 and this was against a massive decline in the movement of goods over our rail systems which truly reflects the levels of investment in our road networks against our rails systems.

Each year new cars entering the Irish market have been exhibiting improved engine design, however the trend towards larger engine sizes show a negative performance in terms of energy efficiency of the overall fleet. A recent report from 2000 to 2005 on the specific fuel consumption showing a reduction in efficiency of 1.6% across the fleet, however on the other side of this balance, the average annual mileage per vehicle has fallen by nearly 10%, with petrol models in 2005 running at 9,923 miles and diesels running at 14,799 miles per annum. This clearly reflects the growth in our fleet numbers, with now nearly 1.2 cars per household, a rise of 50% over 1990 levels.

Despite the current economic gloom, the extent of executive and luxury purchase continue to boom. A detailed analysis carried out on January to August 2007, shows that 2007 is likely to achieve almost 200,000 sales by year end and over 10% of all sales to-date are sports utility vehicles (SUV's). Range Rovers accounts for half of these sales in the price range €72,000 to €160,000, followed by Audi Q7 (€73,490 to €107,700) who boast a six times increase on last years sales.

Another feature recently reported by GE Money show that the style and accessories are now key factors in the decisions with respect to used car sales.

The report pulls no punches: "Cars in poor condition are not selling as well as cars with low mileage and high specifications". The company is noting that consumers are becoming increasingly savvy and as a result choosier about the used car they buy. Not long ago "extras" were deemed a waste of money when trading in. But now air conditioning, sunroofs, CD players and alloy wheels will greatly enhance your chance of a sale.

Ray Hogan is a founder member of both Longford Environmental Alliance and Rathcline Sustainable Projects Group ( www.rspg.ie ) and a registered Building Energy Rating Assessor

LEA

Longford Environmental Alliance

Road Transport

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