Ex-car owners

Project details

Full project title: Ex-car owners: a scoping study

Sponsor: Rees Jeffreys Road Fund

Project manager: Professor Phil Goodwin

Start date: November 2006

Finish date: May-June 2010

Project summary

This project was initiated in 2006 but then subject to delays, and has now been re-launched with a new end date of May-June 2010, in collaboration with Dr Sian Thornthwaite of STC Consultancy. It brings together a variety of quite different reasons why people who have formerly been active car owners and/or drivers may permanently or temporarily cease to be so, including legal reasons for example loss of a license, health and age, financial pressures, change of family circumstances, and voluntary choices for environmental or other reasons.

It is a critical review of existing evidence (which is disparate and inconsistent) with no new empirical research. There are signs that this is an increasingly important phenomenon, of which research and policy understanding is currently poor.