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By Sharri Miller for MailOnline
Young people have caused a decline in car ownership among nearly a third of England’s population, turning instead to electric scooters and bicycles, new figures reveal.
The number of privately owned private cars fell in areas accounting for 31.5% of England’s population, or 16 million people, according to figures released by the DVLA after a freedom of information request, The Sunday Times reports. .
It is a trend that is seen mainly in wealthy urban areas among adults over 18 years of age.
Car ownership among nearly a third of England’s population declined in the last decade
Scott Urban, director of Oxfordshire Liveable Streets, which campaigns for greener transport, said: “These 16 million people are showing the way forward for a society with less pollution, noise and less carbon emissions.”
More than 2.3 million people now live in areas where there is one car for every five adults, as opposed to the beginning of the decade, when the same statistic stood at 1.1 million.
Car ownership was also affected by financial status. The areas with the biggest decline in car ownership have an average home price of £ 325,000, compared to £ 215,000 in areas where ownership increased.
London, which has some of the highest property prices in the country, saw the biggest drop in car ownership.
Environmental defenders praised the 16 million people who ‘show the way’ to reduce pollution
Other areas that saw a decline include Newcastle, Nottingham, Brighton and Hove, Oxford, Birmingham and Exeter.
In contrast, Liverpool’s less affluent areas accounted for nine of the 100 neighborhoods where car ownership increased the fastest in the past 10 years.
Counties with wealthy households and more rural areas also experienced an upward trend.
In a district near Camberley, Surrey Heath, there are 99 cars for every 100 adults, a seven percent increase over the last decade, while in Woolpit, Mid Suffolk, there is one car for every adult, a 29% increase in last. decade.
Up or down, there are now an estimated 40 million cars on the roads of Britain, a milestone reached in April this year.
Young people in wealthy urban areas are increasingly turning to bicycles and electric scooters
The figures were released just days before Boris Johnson is expected to announce a ban on the sale of new gasoline and diesel cars from 2030, five years ahead of schedule.
Britain had originally planned to ban the sale of new gasoline and diesel cars from 2040 as part of efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Earlier this week, environmentalists predicted that such a move would create more than 30,000 new jobs and provide a £ 4.2bn boost to the economy.
The Financial Times reported that the new schedule was not expected to apply to some hybrid cars that use a mix of electric and fossil fuel propulsion and that could still be sold until 2035.
The end of the sale of new gasoline and diesel cars would mark a big change in the British automotive market.
Car companies are already bracing for the changes, as figures from the Department for Transport show that electric vehicle sales have soared by almost 170 per cent in the UK this year.
Johnson has promised to set out a ten-point action plan in comments marking one year until Britain hosts the UN’s “Cop26” climate summit.
It is set up to outline actions in areas such as reducing emissions from transportation, electricity and buildings, and the use of hydrogen and other new technologies.
