Is it cheaper to be on the road now compared to twenty years ago?
Ask any driver and they will most likely tell you that the cost of keeping their vehicle on the road is extortionate. The cost of petrol is a major contributory factor, with petrol prices having rocketed by an incredible amount over recent months. The cost of insuring a vehicle has also gone up considerably, and many pay hundreds of pounds even for the most basic cover on their vehicle these days. Add to this the cost of buying a vehicle in the first place and the cost of servicing, MOTs, tax, and repairs, and you could find yourself shelling out a fortune each year to be on the road.
However, despite all of these factors a recent survey has suggested that in real terms the cost of motoring today is actually around 18% cheaper than it was twenty years ago in 1988. During that time the cost of petrol alone has rocketed by over 200%, but officials from the RAC, which conducted the research, have said that these days the cost of cars is cheaper overall, and vehicles tend to need less money spending on them these days compared to twenty years ago.
Despite these results around 60% of motorists that were surveyed said that they thought the biggest change in motoring over the past twenty years was rising costs. A number of other factors were looked into as part of the RAC survey. A whopping 92% of those polled said that they thought the nation was more reliant now on cars compared to twenty years ago. The results also showed that 70% of adults now have a driving licence, and 75% of all households have a car.
The number of female drivers on the road has gone up by nearly 50% over that period, standing at over fifteen million today compared to just over ten million in 1988. Worryingly nearly one tenth of drivers polled said that they now no longer walked anywhere at all, with a third of motorists stating that they now go on shorter journeys than they did twenty years ago.
Another issue that was touched upon as part of the survey into the cost of keeping a vehicle on the road was the worrying topic of road rage, which has erupted onto our roads in recent years. Nearly one third of those polled classed themselves as having been the victim of road rage, and half said that they have sworn or gestured rudely to other drivers on the road.
One official from the RAC said: “It is worrying that millions of motorists are victims of a driving behaviour that didn’t even have a name 20 years ago. This worrying behaviour becomes downright dangerous when you consider they are behind the wheel of a tonne-and-a-half of metal.”
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