New data shows that motorists in Scotland run red lights the most, with drivers in Glasgow disregarding red traffic lights more than anywhere else in Britain.

Vehicle leasing broker, Select Car Leasing, uncovered the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) figures using the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and found that, since April 2016, Glasgow prosecuted 13,373 drivers for ignoring traffic lights—over 10% of the recorded offences in England, Wales and Scotland.

Showing Glasgow in a bad light

Scotland’s capital, Edinburgh, came second in the list with 8,022 prosecutions in the last four years, while Nottingham came third, recording 5,775 prosecutions up to October 2019.

Of the remaining 20 worst offending postcode areas since 2016, Bristol was next, with 5,048 prosecutions, followed by Cardiff (4,942), Sheffield (2,925), Leicester (2,781), Motherwell (2,596), and Liverpool (2,520). Next, was the London South Western SW postcode area (2,157), followed by Southend-on-Sea (2,305), Manchester (2,239), the London South Eastern SE postcode area (2,157), Greater London (2,137), Birmingham (1,851), Doncaster (1,729), Brighton (1,707), and the Essex CM postcode area (including Billericay, Braintree, Chelmsford, and Stansted) with 1,704 prosecutions. North London was next, with 1,659 offences, then Kilmarnock with 1,611.

The 10 least offending areas since 2016 were those with fewer vehicles on the road, so it’s no surprise Lerwick in the Shetlands had the fewest red light offences, with just 20 offences, followed by The Outer Hebrides in second place with only 34 prosecutions.

The Western Central WC postcode area was next, with 37 offences, followed by the London’s Eastern Central EC postcode area (46), Far North Scotland (56), Llandrindod Wells (61), Dorchester (116), Harrogate (118), Halifax (132), and Blackpool (134).

If you run a red light, you’ll receive a ‘TS10’ notice on your driving licence for ‘failing to comply with traffic light signals’. This stays on your record for four years. The number of TS10 endorsements for traffic light offences since 2016 was 127,721, but overall, these offences are declining, with 39,440 in 2016, 33,695 in 2017, and 33,147 in 2018.

The Department for Transport (DfT) reported 160,597 casualties from road traffic incidents in 2018, with around 75,095 of those taking place at junctions, many of which were traffic light-controlled.

Amber gambler

Mark Tongue, Owner and Company Director of Select Car Leasing, said:

‘Traffic lights are there for a reason and jumping them when they are on red is not only an offence, it is also highly dangerous.

‘Glasgow has around 50 speed and red-light cameras, a relatively high figure compared with other cities, which may explain why it is the red-light jumping capital.

‘But driving habits and behaviours also play a significant part and motorists can hardly blame a camera if they get caught ploughing through traffic when they should be coming to a standstill.

‘Few motorists enjoy being stuck at lights, not least at night when there is little other traffic around and you’re in a rush.

‘But the law is there to be followed and not broken.

‘By jumping a red traffic light or being a so-called ‘amber gambler’, drivers are creating a very real threat of death to other road users and pedestrians.

‘If caught, they also face being handed three penalty points, which in some instances may lead to a driving ban under the totting-up procedure, and a fine.’

Paying the penalty

Traffic light offences are most often dealt with by a Fixed Penalty of 3 points and a £100 fine, but if you don’t respond to the penalty notice or if you give incorrect details of the driver, you risk a fine of £1,000 and six penalty points. If you already have points on your driving licence, a Fixed Penalty may mean you lose your licence.

In England and Wales, if you’re caught by a traffic signal camera and activation of the camera was within less than three seconds of the light turning red, the police may offer you a place on a Traffic Signal Course as an alternative punishment, though Scotland doesn’t yet offer this option.

If you complete a safety awareness course, don’t expect reduced insurance premiums because, depending on the insurance company, your premiums could increase—if you get any penalty points, they will increase.

And, if you cross the white line at traffic lights to make way for emergency vehicles, you won’t be immune from prosecution from a traffic signal camera. And, while many of us will risk punishment to help an emergency vehicle to get to an incident, you’re still liable for any offences you commit by moving across the solid white line; something all emergency personnel know.

How well do drivers obey traffic lights where you live? Do the findings prove more red-light offences happen in Glasgow, or do their police prioritise these offences more than others? Have you been punished for running a red or amber light? Tell us in the comments.

To meet international targets for carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, in 2001, the government encouraged us to switch to diesel cars, even introducing new tax rates as an incentive, but after experts found diesel emissions contained particulates that cause health problems and premature death, politicians began to criticise drivers of ‘dirty’ diesel cars.

Despite their talk on the dangers of diesel, local authority leaders aren’t leading by example and switching to vehicles powered by alternative ‘greener’ fuel sources, highlighted by new research showing that almost 92% of council vehicles have diesel engines.

One rule for one and one rule for another

Under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, Auto Express reached out to the local authorities in England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland and found that, of the 320 that responded, 91.6% of all the vehicles run on diesel with 62 council fleets consisting only of diesel vehicles.

While fleets vary across the UK, the average fleet has 208 vehicles—vehicles such as dustbin lorries, gritters, and minibuses.

Local authorities admit that replacing their fleets’ diesel vehicles with electric alternatives isn’t an option most of the time, which shows how much the UK relies on diesel. With seven out of the 12 responding councils revealing 98.6% of their fleet is diesel-powered, the Northern Ireland councils depend most on the fuel. Scottish councils are least dependent on it, having the highest proportion of electric vehicles (EVs) in their fleet, but even nine out of 10 of their vehicles are diesel.

An increasing number of councils plan to either outright ban diesel drivers from entering certain areas or charge them a fee for the privilege.

In November, we told you how Bristol City Council plans to ban private diesel cars from its city centre, yet 369 (81.5%) of the council’s own 453 vehicles are diesel, and councillors say they intend to buy a further 64 diesel vans.

And 89% of the 4,844-strong fleet operated by London councils use diesel, including at least 724 (15%) pre-Euro 6 diesel vehicles. Yet, drivers of vehicles with the same non-compliant diesel engines must pay £12.50 to enter the city’s Ultra-Low Emission Zone (ULEZ).

Is an electric council fleet just a pipe dream?

Responding to the analysis by Auto Express, the Local Government Association (LGA)—the national membership body for local authorities across England and Wales—said ‘councils are eager to switch to EVs or low-emission alternatives where possible,’ but ‘the vast majority’ of the specialist vehicles councils use don’t have workable electric alternatives because ‘they don’t exist’.

A Spokesperson for the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA) said the figures ‘show a shift away’ from the picture of a traditional diesel fleet and, because of this, there’s a progression towards ‘decarbonising Local Authorities’ fleets.’

COSLA said this shift is likely to span several years but that local government is ‘committed to working towards that goal with Transport Scotland and our public sector partners.’

A spokesperson for Bristol City Council who says the council ‘has a legal duty to improve our air quality,’ said the council hasn’t yet established full details of the city’s Clean Air Zone (CAZ) plan, but that, once the final scheme is in place, it’ll influence how the council uses its fleet, adding, ‘the aim is to reduce air pollution and establish Bristol as a carbon-neutral city.’

Councils that depend on diesel still run a high proportion of EVs compared to the proportion of EVs in the UK as a whole. Together, councils own 1,835 EVs—2.75% of their collective fleets—while the 94,000 EVs registered in the UK make up just 0.25% of vehicles. Of councils with larger fleets (over 20 vehicles), North Somerset has the highest EV proportion, with 36% of its 95 vehicles being pure electric. Of the councils that responded, their fleet included just 306 hybrids and 118 Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles (PHEVs).

The dirty dozen

Across the UK, 12 local authorities stand out because of the number of diesel vehicles in their municipal fleets. These are Aberdeen, Dundee, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Newcastle, Leeds. Manchester, Sheffield, Oxford, Bristol, Bath & North East Somerset, and London. We’ve covered the plans to improve air quality in London and Bristol, but what can you expect from these other major cities?

Aberdeen, Edinburgh, and Dundee both have Low Emission zones (LEZ) under consultation, with Dundee’s introduction planned by the end of 2020 and Glasgow city centre LEZ will ban non-Euro 4 petrol cars and non-Euro 6 diesel vehicles from 2023.

Leeds, Sheffield, and Bath plan to charge drivers of more-polluting HGVs, buses, and taxis to enter the CAZ, with Leeds charging £12.50-£50, Sheffield £10-£50, and Bath £9-£100.

An emission standard-based CAZ for HGVs, buses, taxis, and vans is under consideration in Manchester and Newcastle and, while Oxford is under development, the council could ban non-EVs from parking in the city centre and upgrade its bus fleet to Euro 6.

The demonisation of diesel meant that, in 2017, CO2 emissions rose for the first time in 14 years because of drivers choosing petrol cars over diesel, causing a massive drop in diesel sales. What’s ironic is, tests show that most modern Euro-6 diesel engines are less polluting than many petrol vehicles. Let’s hope the government doesn’t make another u-turn once we’re all driving battery-powered cars.

Are the proposed ‘clean air’ measures workable and fair for everybody? Is your local authority listed? How are they performing? Share your opinions in the comments.

I’ve worked in automotive engineering for 30 years, with everything from a race-tuned Reliant Robin engine (to be used as a fire pump) through to Formula 1, and everything in-between – WRC, WEC, IndyCar, BTCC, WTCC and low-volume manufacturing, to name a few.

I grew up with sci-fi vehicles like the Johnny Cab, or watching the original Top Gear with William Woollard and Chris Goffey, in which we were presented ‘The Car of the Future’, usually in the guise of something with wings, or semi-autonomous capacity. Today, we are living that sci-fi reality.

It’s easy to decry this technology as the ‘Nanny State’ governing us and our driving, and to a degree, that’s exactly what it is. But, and it’s a big but, it’s these smaller steps of semi-autonomy, Artificial Intelligence, and governance, that are leading the charge to science-fiction, becoming science-fact.

Artificial Intelligence

Gone are the days of perfecting the manual gearchange, double declutching, balancing power against grip, or even just reverse parking into a tight spot; modern cars can take care of all of that, and so much more.

Driving was once an art, possibly flamboyant, definitely something that you never finished learning or perfecting, but with the PlayStation generation, it’s just a tool, a method of transportation, where your inputs need to be bare minimum, with maximum efficiency. Is that such a bad thing?

Of course, much of the innovation comes from the need for safety, but it could be argued that  it’s a vicious circle: As cars become easier to drive, with less thought needed, driving standards fall because drivers don’t need to be as aware, or switched on.

Whatever the reasoning, a new way of driving is upon us, and it’s making the most of modern and innovative technologies such as Artificial Intelligence.

Bosch Interior Monitoring System

The latest news in safety and monitoring, comes from the German brand, Bosch GmbH. They are pioneering a system that uses a combination of cameras and Artificial Intelligence to monitor the occupants of a vehicle.

The system is capable of actively adjusting numerous safety systems (seat-belts being a prime example) to best contain or minimise injury; cameras mounted in the steering wheel, rear-view mirror and roof, will monitor eye movement, blink rate, and seating position to best determine whether the driver is distracted, or even if the passengers are sitting in an awkward position (as is the way with most children).

It can then take the appropriate action, be that adjust seat-belts, slowing the car, or just sounding a warning signal.

1 in 10

Past research tells us that around one in ten accidents are caused by distracted or tired driving, the European Commission estimates that systems such as the Bosch IMS could help save 25,000 lives by 2038.

That’s no small number, but you’d have to ask yourself whether in 2038, a system such as this will still be relevant? Surely, full autonomy will be commonplace, with human decisions at an absolute bare minimum?

With that said, this type of technology will be used in production vehicles from 2022, along with the speed monitoring systems and numerous other AI-based innovations, all to make our motoring lives safer. While I dislike the fact that these systems seem to be removing the skilful element of driving, I appreciate that these are necessary if we’re to make the switch to full autonomy in the future.

However, we’ve all seen the photographs of Tesla drivers seemingly asleep at the wheel, letting the Autopilot system do all the work. While that behaviour is (currently) illegal, and Tesla have built-in some safeguards (such as having your hands on the steering wheel), surely that’s the obvious misuse of these systems that we’d expect?

This is part of the problem that we referred to earlier – as cars become easier to drive, with less input needed, driving standards will fall, and we could see a spike in collisions and accidents as a result. American police have already had to use the Tesla’s Autopilot to bring a car safely to a stop (with the Tesla system recognising that the car in front was slowing to stop and it followed), but reliance on safety is still down to the one thing that can’t be changed; human behaviour.

Truthfully, there’s no easy answer, and the gap between traditional drivers and the PlayStation generation is getting wider – think of your elderly mother continuing to struggle with sending a text, and how frustrating that is to someone where it’s second nature. These modern generation vehicles will soon become similar.

Is technology a good thing? Is there an issue of slowing down the introduction of tech to allow drivers to keep up? Or should we just push for as much autonomy as possible? Let us know in the comments.

Image credit: Bosch

It’s hard to believe, and perhaps it gets lost with the differences between forecourts, but November saw petrol and diesel prices drop for the fourth consecutive month, by an average of £0.005 per litre.

However, motoring experts say that fuel is still overpriced, and the AA say that supermarkets aren’t helping the situation with their ‘deals’; spend £60 in-store and get 10p off a litre of fuel. It’s thought that only around 1/3 of motorists regularly spend this amount when grocery shopping.

Fuel price drop

Fuel price analysts say that fuel is still overpriced, and considering that supermarkets have the margins to lower forecourt costs by up to £0.05 per litre, they should be doing more to help drive the prices down, and given that wholesale costs are low, they should be doing this.

The Fuel Watch report carried out by the RAC, says that prices for last month fell by £0.0048 for petrol, and £0.0044 for diesel in the same period, making the average price per litre drop from £1.26.41 to £1.25.93 (unleaded) and £1.30.27 to £1.29.83 (diesel).

This means that the average cost to fill a 55-litre tank is £69.26 (unleaded) and £71.41 (diesel), which is almost a couple of pounds less than the prices being paid in the summer. Since the beginning of August, fuel prices have dropped by around £0.03.31 for unleaded and £0.02.21 for diesel.

Petrol Prices

Of course, we at PetrolPrices could argue that downloading our app could potentially save you more than that anyway (with potential savings of over £220 per year), but in a survey carried out by the AA, consumers want to see more action being done to regulate prices, including forced time periods for following the wholesale cost; so that a forecourt had to reduce the price within a certain timescale.

The AA surveyed nearly 18,000 members, 73% agreed that the Government should set a maximum timescale for retailers to pass on savings, and 86% agreed that they thought supermarkets had the cheapest fuel.

With that said, supermarkets have come in for some heavy criticism, thanks mainly to the spend & save deals linked to fuel. Just 34% of the respondents to the survey said they would regularly spend £60 or more on groceries, and for those aged between 18-24, that figure fell to just one in ten.

When these schemes were first introduced, the ‘spend’ figure had variables – spend £20 for 2p per litre saving, £30 for a three pence saving, but these have gone by the wayside as supermarkets look to maximise their revenue, and in-store spending. 58% of the survey said that they thought supermarket vouchers were an underhand way of getting consumers to spend more.

One supermarket retailer did come out of it well though – ASDA had the cheapest fuel at the end of November, with retailers such as Sainsburys and Morrisons charging nearly two pence extra for diesel. It was also reported that significant savings at the pump (rather than through a voucher) only really happens when ASDA triggers a fuel price war.

Lesson learned?

Overall, consumers think that supermarkets have the cheapest fuel, and statistics do bear that out – averagely, supermarket fuel is £0.04.70 cheaper per litre than at other, regular forecourts, so clearly they’re doing something right, but is it enough?

It’s easy to say ‘vote with your feet’, but for some, that just isn’t practical; my nearest ASDA for example is seven miles away, an easy twenty-five minute journey each way, so I’d be faced with almost an hour’s driving for a small saving.

But … if you’re combining it with a trip for groceries also, then that could work for you, it certainly influences my shopping choice, and I can’t be alone. What would happen if people did start voting with their feet and using supermarkets in such a manner? You can easily see the likes of Tesco, Sainsburys and Morrisons having to compete, because they’d be losing both forecourt and retail revenue.

For some people, fussing over a penny or two saved at the forecourt is just an annoyance, but for others, it can be the difference between staying in the black, or hitting the red, and it shouldn’t be that way. Did you know that there are now more foodbanks than branches of the clown themed fast food restaurant?

Should supermarkets be doing more to help those on the breadline? Do you think that their ‘spend & save’ voucher is a good idea? Or just an underhand way of generating revenue? Let us know in the comments.