The Association of British Drivers (ABD), founded in 1992, is a British motorists' advocacy group. "The Association of British Drivers" is the sole operating name of "Pro-Motor", a company limited by guarantee and registered in the United Kingdom. It is a voluntary non-profit making organization funded by subscriptions and donations from ordinary members of the public. They claim to represent "the independent voice of the driver", receiving no funds from the government or from any companies. ABD is a member of the Parliamentary Advisory Council for Transport Safety (PACTS). An advocacy group, interest group or lobbying group is a group, however loosely or tightly organized, doing advocacy: those determined to encourage or prevent changes in public policy without trying to be elected. ... The Parliamentary Advisory Council for Transport Safety (PACTS) is a United Kingdom Parliament Associate Parliamentary Group which exists to promote transport safety legislation to protect human life. According to PACTS, the organisations principal activities are: providing an independent technical advisory service for Parliamentarians on a wide range of transport...

Its formal objectives are^[1]:

• To represent and promote the interests of car owners and drivers, motorcyclists and users of other forms of private and commercial motorised vehicles
• To support better vehicle design and safety
• To support higher standards of motor vehicle design, efficiency, economy, performance and improved emissions standards
• To support better standards of driver training
• To monitor road construction and maintenance, including spending levels, levels of taxation and the cost of motoring generally
• To monitor road traffic legislation, enforcement and penalties

Its website also states^[2] that members of the ABD firmly believe that:

• It is the right of the individual to decide whether to travel by private car or by another means of transport, it is not the job of Government or others to restrict that choice.
• Car ownership should be affordable to all levels of society — rich and poor.
• Car ownership rates in the UK remain low by international standards.

Campaigns

It campaigns against what it sees as an anti-motorist bias in British government policy, and against what it sees as "anti-car" organizations such as Transport 2000. It opposes what it sees as the inappropriate use of speed cameras, claiming that cameras are used mainly as a means of raising revenue on roads where the risk of crashes is low, argues that British fuel taxes are excessive, and has expressed scepticisms of man-made global warming, which is often cited as a justification for policies aimed at reducing private car use. The Carfree movement is a coalition of people who believe that it is important to reduce both the number of cars in the world, and the usage of them. ... A red-light camera in use in Beaverton, Oregon A road-rule enforcement camera is a system including a camera and a vehicle-monitoring device used to detect and identify vehicles disobeying a road rule or road rules. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... A fuel tax (also known as a petrol tax, gasoline tax, gas tax or fuel duty) is a sales tax imposed on the sale of fuel. ... The global warming controversy is the debate concerning causes of increased global average air temperature since the mid-1800s, whether this warming trend is unprecedented or within normal climatic variations, predictions of additional warming, what the consequences are, and what actions should be taken. ...

Context of ABD claims

Road construction and maintenance

In 2003/2004 road use taxation (vehicle excise duty, fuel duty, and the VAT it attracts), raised about GBP 32 billion. Total expenditure on roads in England for the same period was about GBP 5.5 billion^[3]. A UK vehicle licence (tax disc) In the United Kingdom, Vehicle Excise Duty (VED) (often known as road tax, although it is not hypothecated for spending on roads, and before 1936 as road fund licence) is an annual tax on the use of motor vehicles on the public roads. ... A gasoline tax (also known as a gas tax, petrol tax, fuel tax or fuel duty) is a sales tax imposed on the sale of gasoline. ... vat can be a type of barrel used for storage. ... “GBP” redirects here. ...

The structural condition of principal roads in England has deteriorated between 1993 and 2004. In 1993 13.5% of principal roads were assessed as requiring close monitoring. By 2004 that figure had risen to 17.6%^[3].

Whitelegg (1992) calculated that if all the indirect costs associated with car use are totalled (including pollution, traffic injury and death), the shortfall between costs revenues amounted to around £1000 per vehicle per year. Other estimates have been of the order of £1000 to £1500 per year. Both revenues and costs have risen since then and there is debate as to whether levels of revenue have risen to the point where ongoing costs are fully met, but there is no current move to make good past shortfalls.

Levels of taxation

Official statistics^[4] for 2004 show that the UK had the highest fuel prices in the European Union (EU), and that the UK's tax take on car fuel was the highest in the EU.

Comparing individual elements of motoring taxation, such as fuel duty, between countries may be misleading, as different countries strike different balances between fuel duty, vehicle excise duty and road tolls. Total taxation per car in the UK is around the European average, similar to France and Italy, higher than Germany, much lower than the Netherlands or Ireland ^[5].

Road traffic legislation, enforcement and penalties

The BBC reports^[6] that the Transport Secretary Douglas Alexander said: The British Broadcasting Corporation, which is usually known as the BBC, is the largest broadcasting corporation in the world in terms of audience numbers, employing 26,000 staff in the United Kingdom alone and with a budget of more than GB£4 billion. ... The Secretary of State for Transport is the member of the cabinet responsible for the British Department for Transport. ... Douglas Garven Alexander (born October 26, 1967) is a British politician who is Secretary of State for International Development. ...

The government is determined to see a parking system that is fairer and more consistent

There appears to be no intention though to reimburse any of the GBP 1.16 billion made^[7] from the implicitly unfair and inconsistent parking system by the councils in 2005. Vehicle clamping Vehicle removal Decriminalised Parking Enforcement (DPE) is the name given in the United Kingdom to the civil enforcement of car parking regulations. ...

There is robust evidence supporting the idea that both incidence and severity of crashes is reduced as speed reduces^[8].

The contributory factors analysis^[9] included in the DfT's Road Casualties Great Britain 2006 statistics release reports that the injudicious action which can be targeted by speed cameras, "Exceeding speed limit", is a factor in 5% of all accidents (12% of fatal accidents). The speed factor which can be targeted by driver training, but not by cameras, "Going too fast for conditions", is a factor in 12% of all accidents (17% of fatal accidents). Road Casualties Great Britain (RCGB), formerly Road Accidents Great Britain (RAGB) is the official statistical publication of the British Department for Transport on traffic casualties, fatalities and related road safety data. ...

Car ownership

The summary of a research project into the health benefits of owning a house and owning a car, reported by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)^[10] states: "There is clear evidence that people who have access to a private vehicle live longer and are healthier than people without their own means of transport." In another report about a research project exploring means to extend life quality^[11] the ESRC state: "...the fact that car drivers/owners reported higher quality of life than non-car owners/drivers could not simply be explained by the fact that they were wealthier". According to the AA, this benefit is most apparent in cyclists, who are more likely than the average to own houses and pay high rate tax^{[citation needed]}. The Economic and Social Research Council is the main UK state funding agency for research and graduate studies in the social sciences. ...

The most common reason given for a household not having a car is lack of any qualified drivers (38%), followed by the cost of a car/driving (32%), then lack of need due to availability of other modes (31%) and physical difficulties (19%)^[12].

Reasons given for not driving were: availability of lifts from family & friends (33%); not interested in driving (31%); cost of learning (24%); availability of other modes (23%) and costs of driving (23%)^[12]. Over half of all drivers state that the costs and environmental factors do not influence the amount of driving at all, but for around a quarter of individuals the price of petrol limited how much they travel by car "to some extent" (22%) or "a great deal" (5%). Overall, the costs of petrol had slightly more influence on the amount of driving as did environmental considerations.^[12].

People living in rented accommodation and thoise living in London were least likely to own a car. People over 75 were more likely to live in a household without a car than younger people.

The overall cost of motoring in Britain in 2003 was below the 1980 level in real terms, although the real cost of fuel was 7% higher. Bus and coach fares rose by 34% and rail fares by 36% in real terms over the same period^[13]. According to the RAC Foundation the major cost of motoring is the capital and depreciation costs of the vehicle, with fuel costs and excise duty being around one third of the cost of running a small car^[14].

The number of private cars registered in the UK rose by 28% between 1995 and 2005^[15]. During this time the population increased by around 3.4%^[16]. In the ten years 1993-2003 the proportion of households with no car dropped by 5 percentage points from 31% to 26%^[17], and in the ten years 1994-2004 total car mileage increased by 15% from 345 to 398.1 billion passenger km^[3].

Official EU statistics for 2003^[18] show that the mean number of passenger cars per 1000 population in the UK, at 452, is 3% lower than the overall EU mean (weighted by population) of 465. Per capita car ownership in the UK is 6% lower than that of the USA. In mathematics and statistics, the arithmetic mean (or simply the mean) of a list of numbers is the sum of all the members of the list divided by the number of items in the list. ...

DfT official figures^[4] show that, in terms of cars per capita, the UK ranks fourteenth in the list of 29 countries, whereas if the DfT list is ranked by GDP per capita spending power equivalent the UK is ninth.

International comparisons of cars per capita do not take account of variations in population density.

According to the Statistical Office of the European Communities (Eurostat) the number of passenger cars per 1000 inhabitants is often used as a way of measuring the standard of living, although there is no known statistical correlation between car ownership and economic performance or standard of living, particularly in highly developed economies such as Britain. The Statistical Office of the European Communities (Eurostat) is the statistical arm of the European Commission, producing data for the European Union and promoting harmonisation of statistical methods across the member states of the European Union. ...

The desirability of further increasing car ownership is disputed, and groups such as Transport 2000, and those concerned with the environment such as Greenpeace believe that reductions in car ownership and use are desirable. There are chronic problems of congestion at certain times of the day in some British towns (most of which were laid out before cars became common). Greenpeace protest against Esso / Exxon Mobil. ...

Other claims

In a newspaper article^[19] the correspondent notes that membership of the ABD is unclear. The article asserts that in 2004, ABD chairman Brian Gregory told The Guardian that the association had 9,000 members, and that when challenged this claim was reduced to 2,256 paying subscribers and 3,775 "affiliate" members, included by virtue of their membership of eight connected associations. The article also claims that several of these organisations (including the Renault Clio Owners Club) disputed that they had any link to the ABD. The higher figure represents 0.64% of British driving license holders, the lower, 0.16%.

The idea that public policy is anti-car or anti-motorist is disputed by groups such as the road crash victim support group RoadPeace, who have suggested that the penalties for causing death and serious injury as a result of negligence while driving are substantially lower than for doing so whilst involved in most other activities. ^[20]. RoadPeace is a UK charity [1], their stated aim being to support bereaved and injured road crash victims. ...

References

1. ^ The Formal Objectives of the Association. ABD. Retrieved on June 28, 2006.
2. ^ Aims and Objectives of the ABD: The Main Points. ABD. Retrieved on March 9, 2006.
3. ^ ^{a b c} UK Department for Transport. "Transport Statistics for Great Britain 2005: Roads and Traffic". The Stationery Office.
4. ^ ^{a b} UK Department for Transport. "Transport Statistics for Great Britain 2005: International Comparisons". The Stationery Office.
5. ^ Factsheets - No.2: European Motoring Taxes Comparison. UK Commission for Integrated Transport.
6. ^ "Friendlier parking rules sought", BBC, 12 July 2006. 
7. ^ Anil Dawar. "'Draconian' council wheel-clampers are given the boot", The Daily Telegraph, 12 July 2006. 
8. ^ TRL report 323
9. ^ David Robinson, Richard Campbell. Contributory factors to road accidents. Road Casualties Great Britain: 2005.
10. ^ Drive a car - be healthy!.
11. ^ Transport and Ageing: Extending Quality of Life Via Public and Private Transport.
12. ^ ^{a b c} UK Department for Transport. Attitudes to Car Use 2006.
13. ^ UK Department for Transport. "Transport Trends 2004".
14. ^ RAC Foundation, motoring costs 2005
15. ^ UK Department for Transport. "Transport Statistics Bulletin 2005: Vehicle Licensing".
16. ^ UK National Statistics. "Population Trends Summer 2006".
17. ^ UK Department for Transport. "Transport Statistics for Great Britain 2005: Vehicles". The Stationery Office.
18. ^ Energy & Transport : Figures and Main Facts : Part 3 - Transport : Table 3.6.1 Road Motorisation. Retrieved on 2006-06-28.
19. ^ Clark, Andrew. "They call themselves the voice of the driver. But who do they really represent?", The Guardian, 2004-02-03. Retrieved on 2006-03-09. 
20. ^ "Killer drivers to face prison", The Times, 2006-07-03. 

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External links

• Association of British Drivers official website