That's how far UK vehicles travel each year.  Car traffic makes up the major share of this, with a total of 404 billion km being driven in 2007 by the UK's cars.

However 2008 may see a totally different result.  The rapidly increasing fuel price seen at the beginning of 2008 had made a lot of road users, and care users in particular think twice about how and when they use their cars.

And compounded with the credit crunch, petrol usage appears to be one of the expenses that UK consumers have taken in hand and chosen to reduce.  Early indications are that car traffic is set to decrease by 2% during 2008 - which is a massive 8 billion kilometres of car usage.

Car use set to reduce by 8 billion kilometres – are we saving the world, or simply saving the pounds?

The first quarter of 2008 has seen car usage dropping by 4%, a massive 8 billion kilometres a year.

The same period also saw rocketing fuel prices, threatened substantial increases in road tax, an increased congestion zone in London.

UK consumers also experienced rising domestic electricity and gas prices, falling house values, and politicians & media constantly producing doom and gloom stories about whether or not the UK was in a recession.

So is the UK becoming a greener nation, choosing to walk and cycle to save the environment, or is it simply that people are just thinking twice about how and when they use the car.  During the spring when fuel prices were increasing almost daily many people changed their travelling patterns, saving up the errands into one car trip, instead of several throughout the day.  These changed patterns seem to have become a habit, because although the fuel prices did reduce a bit consumers promptly saw any savings disappear to the electricity and gas companies.

It is interesting though to see that the pressures on household income have pushed many people into a greener way of life.  Concerns about reducing power bills have encouraged people to improve their house insulation, to turn down the thermostat, to use the washing line instead of the tumble dryer. Concerns about reducing petrol costs have encouraged people to walk or cycle to school, to cut down on the number of short journeys, and just generally thinking twice about how they use their car.  Increasing food costs have made people waste less.

So has the price of oil managed to achieve what a decade worth of lecturing from the environmentalists and governments failed to do?  Will these greener habits become permanent lifestyle changes?  Probably, at least until the price of oil comes down.