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Don’t drive much but still need occasional access to a vehicle? Car sharing is an option that could save you both money and emissions Change by degrees offers life hacks and sustainable living tips each Saturday to help reduce your household’s carbon footprint Got a question or tip for reducing household emissions? Email us at changebydegrees@theguardian.com Cars are a major household expense and source of emissions, but some trips are too onerous or inconvenient for public transport. Owning a car can be expensive. Australians spend about 15% of their household income on transport, according to the Australian Automobile Association. Insurance, registration, servicing and roadside assistance alone can cost about $8,000 per year. Continue reading...

Hundreds of cars driven through cones or barriers in England this year, says National Highways Drivers ignoring roadwork closures to skip queues are putting lives at risk, National Highways has warned, after recording hundreds of incidents this year where cars were deliberately driven through cones or barriers. The agency, which manages motorways and major roads, said there was increasing concern about incursions into closed-off roadworks and the danger they posed. Continue reading...

In towns and in the countryside, I see SUVs and pickup trucks driven without care or consicence. It’s the Magafication of transport Where is lawbreaking not just visible, but designed to be seen? Where is antisocial behaviour worn as a badge of honour? Where is pleasure gained directly from causing distress? And where is reckless endangerment often ignored by the police or treated with the mildest of punishments? The answer is on the roads. Last month, three men in the West Midlands were convicted of street racing. Two were driving at over 80mph in a 40mph zone. The third clocked over 90mph in a 30mph zone. The West Midlands has long been blighted by organised racing , sometimes involving 200 cars or more and hundreds of spectators. The result is a long catalogue of deaths and life-changing injuries, including some caused when racers have left the road and ploughed into onlookers or pedestrians . And there are plenty more accidents where the police have little idea whether racing is t...

Lars Janssen says self-driving vehicles would be a boon for him as he has an eye condition and can’t drive, in response to an article by Adrian Chiles. Plus letters from Richard Connell and Michael Fuller Adrian Chiles ( Driverless cars are taking us on a road to nowhere, 10 September ) wants to know who asked for driverless cars. I did. I have an eye condition called nystagmus and will never be able to drive unless a “tech-bro willy-waver”, or anyone else, finds a cure. Fortunately, not every driver is as reckless as the ones Chiles despairs of, and the most careful of all may not even be human. Waymo, Google’s sister company, says its cars have far fewer crashes causing injuries than human drivers. In July, the US Insurance Institute for Highway Safety found that its cars had 68% fewer crashes per mile than human drivers. Continue reading...

Latest attempt to secure future of Britain’s biggest car factory may be subject to UK weakening EV sales mandate Nissan has said it will invest £170m to build a new SUV at its factory in Sunderland – but said the move was subject to the UK weakening its electric vehicle sales mandate . The new hybrid model, the Kicks, is Nissan’s latest attempt to secure the future of the plant, which employs 6,000 people in Tyne and Wear and is Britain’s biggest car factory. Continue reading...

Modern cars are fitted with features like autonomous emergency braking and fatigue monitoring. But do they support motorists or drive them to distraction? This new car I’m test-driving boasts all the latest bells and whistles – or, rather, beeps and bings. Peer sideways for too long checking traffic and the car emits an irritating sound. Should I take a hand off the wheel to scratch an ear, I’m admonished with a strident beep. When the car determines it’s too near a white line, it tugs the wheel against my hands and brakes as a car slows ahead. Its haptic “buttons” feel like fingers pressing back – as if an invisible presence has its hands and feet on the controls: a ghost in the machine I’m inside. Continue reading...