This week’s weekly simple swap can save you up to £1362.50 a year.

By reducing and rethinking the way you travel, you could potentially save £1362.50 per driver per year. Transport also continues to be a significant source of air pollution, especially in cities. Air pollutants, such as particulate matter (PM) and nitrogen dioxide (NO2), harm human health and the environment.

One way of rethinking travel is to create the “30-minute rule”, meaning If a destination is under a 30-minute walk, then walk or ride your bike (and perhaps enjoy listening to a podcast or to music).

In 2021, 25 per cent of trips were under 1 mile, and 72 per cent were under 5 miles. The proportion of short trips is broadly consistent with levels in 2020 and in 2019; transport produced 24 per cent of the UK’s total emissions in 2020, and remains the largest emitting sector in the UK.

The majority of emissions from domestic transport (91 per cent) came from road vehicles (89 MtCO2e). If everyone in the UK replaced their 1 mile car journeys we could save 22.25 MTCO2e per year.

This would not only help save you money but reduce your carbon footprint and improve your health, as according to the NHS, the average Brit walks between “3,000 and 4,000 steps a day”. This is not enough, as a step count so low could increase the rate of “cancer, heart disease, stroke and diabetes by 20–30 per cent” states the World Health Organisation. 

In addition, applying the “30-minute rule”: if 25 per cent of journeys are under a mile then, a car currently driving 5,000 miles a year, costing around £1,010 in petrol, could save you £252.50 while one driving the average distance of 7,400 miles a year, which costs nearly £1,450 on fuel, could save you up to £362.50, if the same rule were to be applied.

If you want to reduce your carbon footprint but your destination is outside the “30-minute rule”, then maybe consider carpooling, as it could save you money. 67 per cent of respondents in the National Travel Survey stated that lift sharing is cheaper than travelling alone. So carpooling is a fantastic solution to reducing travel costs, as Liftshare claims that their ‘members save over £1,000 on average every year’.

Furthermore, time flies when you are having fun and carpooling provides the perfect opportunity to spend your car journey chatting and getting to know someone. Hence the evidence suggests that carpooling also means ‘less stress, higher morale, and lower blood pressure’  according to The Personal because of ‘sharing the driving burden to using the HOV lanes during rush hour.’

Not only this, but by filling all five seats in a car, there could be a huge 20 per cent decrease in pollution produced by cars on the road. The UK Government reports that increasing car occupancy for all journeys, from the current average levels of 1.55 people per vehicle to 1.7, could save an enormous 3 million tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) emission per by 2030.

This would bring yearly emissions from cars down roughly to the same level as emissions from UK buses. Meaning reducing carbon emissions and decreasing the number of car journeys also has a positive impact on the air quality in your area and fewer cars on the road leads to fewer traffic jams, and getting home a lot quicker. 

 So, over the average lifespan of 80 years you could save up to £109,000.

Your weekly summary: using the“30-minute rule” can save up to £362.50 a year. Improve your health and the environment, potentially saving up to 25 per cent of your personal vehicle’s emissions. Also carpooling for travels beyond the “30-minute rule” can save you up to £1,000, as well as reducing your carbon footprint. Save money, save the planet.