Is the Government barking up the wrong tree?

Car sharing lanes are, in principal, an excellent idea. They are a concept already established in other parts of the world, namely the United States, Australia and parts of Europe. And now they are gradually being introduced in Britain, albeit on an ad-hoc basis. In Leeds a car sharing lane has been operational for some time, and there are now lanes appearing in Birmingham and on a section of the M1 motorway.

Car sharing lanes - how come they’re always empty?

The rationale behind the concept is obvious: these lanes offer a more environmentally friendly answer to car use than use of cars by solo drivers since they reduce the number of cars on the road, thereby reducing emissions. Also, they ease the problems of congestion the United Kingdom faces today; which is a significant problem.

The use of car sharing lanes means that those drivers and their passengers reach their destinations quicker, and so do the other cars with single occupants, since there are fewer cars in the standard lanes. So in theory, this really is a win-win situation. Or is it?

The success of car sharing lanes is obviously dependent on the willingness of drivers to obey the rules and to play fair when it comes to their use. Not all lanes have cameras monitoring them, which results in drivers being able to run the (small) risk of being caught if they are on their own in a car in a sharing lane.

Moreover, the fines involved aren’t that high. On some lanes the fine incurred for improper use is only £30 if caught. If congestion is bad and drivers are sitting in traffic jams, then they are more likely to be willing to flout the rules and enter the car sharing lanes. They could have a vital meeting to attend, or are late for an important interview. Weighing up the odds, if someone is in a traffic jam, furious at being potentially late for a contract meeting where a multi-million pound deal is to be signed, then financially it would make sense to risk a £30 fine rather than miss the meeting… Indeed, for whatever reason someone was travelling, they may grow so annoyed waiting in heavy traffic that they will be prepared to risk the paltry £30 fine.

Cut into the car sharing lane, get to the meeting on time.

So in order for the scheme to be a success, a change of thinking may be required and a fine of £100 or even £1,000 may have to be introduced, to ensure compliance. Perhaps supported by a government campaign demonising the act, a technique that has been fairly successful for drink-driving.

Critics also point out that there is no effective way of catching those who breach the rules. Police monitor the lanes, but this is difficult to operate effectively. Some lanes may have cameras, but these can be fooled by drivers holding a hand up to the window. In the Netherlands, drivers get round the car sharing concept by having an blow up doll that they place on the passenger seat with the head pointing downwards towards the windscreen. This inventive scheme makes detection by cameras almost impossible.

The cameras can’t tell the difference between a blow-up doll or a human face.

Scientists are currently working on cameras which can actually sense a human head in the car, but this is some way off. The other method of policing the system is simply to photograph every car that goes through, and then manually look through the photos to ascertain if there is more than one person in the car. However, the costs of doing this would far exceed the potential to recoup the costs in fines (particularly if they are only £30 fines).

Critics also point out that in other parts of the world, the car sharing lanes are often empty, particularly during rush hours, when in theory they should be full. Hence, they argue, if car sharing is not a success in other parts of the world, then why should it be in Britain?

Supporters of the car sharing concept argue that on average a car sharing lane will reduce travel times for its drivers. They will also save on petrol, since effectively the costs of the petrol can be shared, or each driver can take it in turns to drive, thereby halving an individual’s fuel costs. Wear and tear is also reduced on car sharers’ cars and the environment benefits because there are fewer cars on the road.

However, for many the reality of car sharing is simply not feasible. The Highways Agency estimates that 84% of the people on British roads are driving on their own. This could be because people now increasingly have to drive for work and many people now face much longer commutes to their workplace. We no longer live and work in the same town; and people may not always be able to find a commuter living near them to join them on their daily journey.

Car sharing can also be inconvenient: drivers may find themselves waiting on their sharer to arrive in the morning and often it can be difficult in the working environment to state that you will be finished for a particular time. In warmer climates this may not be too much of a problem, but a lone woman waiting for her car sharer to pick her up at 6.30pm on a dark winter’s night, when the rain is lashing down, may well not agree.

Car sharing on a winter’s night - not that fun!

Historically, transport planners simply reacted to congestion problems by picking out areas where roads could be widened, additional lanes introduced, bypasses created or public transport enhanced. Now however, additional roads or motorway lanes are seen as environmentally hostile and there is a desire to see the numbers of cars on our roads reduced, rather than simply making more roads available.

Yet until there is a viable alternative to road use, by a more efficient and cost effective rail network, it is likely that we will, for the most part, cling on to our sole occupancy of cars and resist any widespread car sharing initiatives, preferring instead to suffer on our own, but at least in our own personal space.

All this means is that the future for car sharing lanes does not look hopeful, and it is possible that they will indeed do little to reduce the significant problems of congestion that we face on our roads today.