The average person in the UK owns 12 cars in their lifetime and they spend up to £3500 a year to keep them running. Add to that, the price of the car, the average for a new one is now an eye-watering £40,000. Plus parking. Plus the stress of sitting in traffic. And all this is before we start looking at the effects of cars on the environment and our health.
£3500 is a bloody nice family holiday. £40,000 is a deposit on a house or paying a good chunk of your mortgage off.
Does it really make sense to own a car in 2025?
Or should you be looking at ways to ditch the car? Or if that’s a step too far, going car-lite?
Swap four wheels for two
In 2022 women in the UK drove on average 7.5 miles per journey and men 9.2 miles. Not easily walkable distances but this is where opting for two wheels over four might make sense. Even more so if you opt for an e-bike.
E-bikes are a great way to make longer trips without getting all sweaty and out of breath. They can be expensive (£500-£3000) but that’s still considerably cheaper than running a car.
Cargo bikes are another option, especially if you’ve got young kids or need to haul large grocery bags. Some tradespeople are even swapping in their vans for cargo bikes — how wonderful would it be for the plumber to pull up on a cargo bike rather than in a diesel chugging van?
And, as with all active travel options, there is a benefit to your health, the health of those around you and the environment.
Walking back to happiness
In the USA the majority of car journies are less than four miles — now we’re in the walking zone.
Out of all the options for going car-free or car-lite, walking wins in one key area — it’s free!
Plus if you start walking more, you could cancel the gym membership and now walking is making you money (kind of).
Time to make friends with public transport
Ok, some places are better than others when it comes to public transport. Rural areas are often overlooked or woefully underfunded when it comes to accessible and reliable public transport.
This option is probably easier if you live in a large town or city. London for example has excellent underground and overground options. Manchester’s bright yellow buses and trams, part of the Bee Network, make travelling by public transport considerably easier than using a car.
If public transport options aren’t great in your area why not see if you can reduce the distances you need to travel and…
Create your own 15-minute neighbourhood
Do you need to travel by car as much as you think? Do you need to go to the out-of-town shopping centre when you have a street full of independent shops around the corner?
Instead of automatically getting in your car and driving to x, y, z, ask yourself what are the local alternatives. Driving cars strips away community ties and creates division. Support your local community. Be the neighbour who stops and speaks to others as they walk to the shops. Learn all the dog owners’ names (not just the dogs!). Make it safer for kids to play outside. Get lost in your own neighbourhood — you never know what you’ll find.
Stay safe
Not everywhere is ready for people to start walking, wheeling and cycling more. But if you don’t feel safe doing so ask yourself why? And find out what you can do to help improve infrastructure (pavements and cycleways) and pedestrian and cyclist rights.
It might mean going to local council meetings and finding out what the priorities are and who is open to learning about making their town safer for active travel.
And you can join or support charities that campaign for safer active travel infrastructure such as Living Streets or Sustrans in the UK or America Walks in the USA. Living Streets Walk to School week runs 19–23 May 2025 — a great way to help kids learn the magic of leaving the car behind and seeing the natural world all around them.
Car-free or car-lite?
Ok, so it might be daunting to give up your car or go car-lite, but honestly, once you start you’ll wonder why you were so reliant on cars.
I gave up my car in 2022, and my husband has an electric car. The first thing we noticed was how much money we saved not having to tax, insurance, service and fill up my car. And some journies may take a bit more planning than usual — we used to drive to France, now we’re going by train — but they’re a heck of a lot more enjoyable when can stare out the window at the countryside whipping by, rather than sitting behind a wheel staring at the back of another car.
I’d love to hear other options and ideas for going car-free or car-lite. Please feel free to share them in the comments.
Happy walking, wheeling and cycling!
Walking Revolution 