Road Transport Energy Consumption

Introduction

Transport in all its forms is critical to the well-being of modern advanced societies both for the movement of goods and for the opportunities for personal travel that it offers. There is a strong link between economic growth and increased demand for transport. Higher disposable incomes facilitate increased car ownership and enable more people to travel over longer distances whilst demand for products increases requiring a higher level of freight transportation. Total transport energy consumption in the UK has increased steadily – by 112% since 1970 and by 23% since 1990. In 2007 a total of 59.8 million tonnes of oil equivalent was consumed in the UK transport sector, all but a negligible 0.2% deriving from petroleum products. Nearly 72% of transport energy consumption is attributable to road transport with the remainder split between air (23%), water (3%) and rail (2%) transport. In the case of road transport total energy consumption amounted to nearly 43 million tonnes of oil equivalent in 2007, a level 10% higher than that in 1990 but more than double the amount used in 1970.

Background

Information on regional and local (district authority) road transport energy consumption for 2005 and 2006 is provided by the Department for Business Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR) as part of their remit to produce estimates of total energy consumption which as well as transport includes electricity, gas and 'other' fuels consumption. Full details of the methodology underlying these estimates together with the associated regional and local data for the whole of the UK can be found on the BERR website. The relevant Lancashire road transport energy statistics can also be obtained from our Data Download Centre.

Lancashire Results

Total road transport energy consumption in the Lancashire NUTS-2 sub-region in 2006 is estimated at 849,000 tonnes of oil equivalent, representing about 27% of energy consumed in the area from all sources. Lancashire's road transport energy consumption amounted to 2.3% of the Great Britain total or just over a fifth of the wider North West Region (Table 1). Nearly 64% of usage was attributable to personal travel and 36% to freight movement – similar shares to that nationally. At district level there is considerable variability in consumption reflecting levels of transport usage and particularly through traffic (motorways) ranging from 123,000 tonnes of oil equivalent (14.4%) of the Lancashire total) in Chorley to just 36,000 tonnes in Blackpool (4.2% of the total).

Figure 1 Road Transport Fuel Consumption, 2006

Source BERR - Road Transport Fuel Consumption

A56, Looking North

In the case of personal travel petrol cars are the main consumer of fuel across Lancashire accounting for nearly three-quarters of all fuel used for this purpose, followed by diesel cars (19%), buses (6%) and motorcycles (less than 1%). In the case of freight movements, HGVs account for 61% of fuel with diesel LGVs and petrol LGVs accounting for 36% and 3% respectively.

Changes in road transport energy consumption over time can occur for efficiency, technological or economic reasons. Nationally there has been a long-term upward trend that has been particularly marked in the case of road freight transport. This has been driven largely by increased economic activity and has been enabled by an improved road network that can accommodate larger and heavier vehicles. Increases in personal travel have been driven by increased car ownership and since 1990 car use per person has remained fairly constant. Just two years of data for 2005 and 2006 are currently available for Lancashire. Changes over such a short period of time are not necessarily indicative of longer-term patterns but at face value there was a net increase in road transport energy consumption in Lancashire of 5,600 tonnes of oil equivalent, or +0.7%, marginally above the increase recorded nationally. This broad average disguised a net fall of 1,200 tonnes (-0.2%) in consumption for personal travel (most apparent in Lancaster, Blackpool and Hyndburn) but a rise of 6,900 tonnes (+2.3%) for freight (strongest in Chorley, Hyndburn and Blackburn).

Note on the Data

The first experimental local authority road transport consumption statistics were derived for 2002 but it has been only since the 2005 results were published that these estimates have assumed National Statistics status. The figures are based on the point of consumption rather than where the fuel is actually purchased. They are "bottom-up" estimates produced through combining specific fuel consumption factors for many different types of vehicles with local traffic flow data. The fuel consumption factors take account of many variables including size of vehicle, technology and the type of driving cycles characteristic of different road conditions, e.g. whether slow urban driving or high speed motorway conditions.