Mobility Matters Daily #105 - A deep dive into the right to repair

Plus who do you want driverless cars to kill?

Good morning friend.

Today, I thought we could do something slightly different. In this edition, we are taking a deep dive into a specific issue that has appeared in the news in the last few days. As well as having the stat of the day and the one thing for you to do today. I hope that you enjoy the read.

James

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The right to repair and hacking tractors

This week, the UK government introduced new ‘right to repair’ legislation, which is intended to give consumers the right to repair by making spare parts available for many products for at least 10 years after launch. Though there are noticable holes in the legislation, this movement is gaining momentum, and is important to transport. But first, a bit of context.

The right to repair is often linked to a concept called the Circular Economy. The Ellen MaCarthur Foundation has been the leading light on work in defining this concept, which can best be described as planning in redesign and the extension of life of products and services into the economic system, as well as recycling the component parts. The right to repair creates a loop by giving users the authority to make repairs to prolong the life of a product. Something that we as humans have been doing for hundreds of years before warranties started to be voided by repairs.

The Circular Economy (Source: Ellen MaCarthur Foundation)

The USA gives us a prime example of the impacts a lack of legislation can have. For generations, farmers fixed their tractors by - well - fixing them. A few spare parts and a couple of hours in the yard, and its running again. But as new tractors have become more computerised, any breakdown now needs specialist support from the manufacturer to fix. Its not the cost that is the problem. If your tractor is at the manufacturer just at the time when your crop needs harvesting, you are ruined. That has led some farmers to hack their tractors in order to save their livelihoods and homes.

This is now taking on a much wider momentum, chiming into cultural debates about wastefulness and the age-old annoyance of planned obselence in electronics. And major companies are fighting back, while the likes of the Restart Project are fighting hard at the community level to make a difference. Even President Biden seems to like the idea. But why is it important to transport planners?

Simply, its because the second-hand market for vehicles is huge and is likely to have a huge impact on how we travel. Lets take used cars as our basic case. In the UK, 7.9 million used cars were sold in 2019, compared to 2.5 million new vehicle registrations in the same year. That’s a lot more bangers than hot rods.

New and used car sales / registrations in the UK (Source: SMMT)

Traditional transport planning dictates that as the price of ownership of vehicles decreases, so increases the propensity to use vehicles. Interestingly, there is no direct research that links the health of the used car market to the number of trips. But we do know that ownership of cars results in the use of public transport falling significantly. Therefore, at least theoretically, the used car market is important to trip generation in two ways:

• Decreasing the cost of vehicle ownership, bringing lower-middle income households into car ownership and consequently higher car use, and;

• Establishing vehicle use amongst new drivers by lowering the initial cost of ownership.

It is also worthwhile considering the relative importance of fixed and variable costs when it comes to vehicle ownership. Evidence from the Netherlands shows that people are more price sensitive to changes in fixed costs (e.g. buying a car) than they are to changes in variable costs. This is confirmed by early studies on cross-elasticities with public transport.

There is also evidence that a strong second hand vehicle market has an impact on road safety, with the presence of second hand cars having a small but noticeable impact on vehicle collisions. However, this link is far from certain and could be explained by random variations in a small dataset.

But the effects of the used car market are even more complex than this. Researchers in the Netherlands have concluded, for instance, that the used car market can impact on the effectiveness of pricing mechanisms designed to encourage fuel efficiency. Simply, if there is a high initial price premium for fuel efficient cars - where the first owners effectively ‘pay' for the fuel efficiency savings over the lifetime of the car - then it benefits people on lower incomes more.

The industry focused way of this impact on the car market is through reduction in sales, either in second hand vehicles or new sales. Hence partly why motor manufacturers are moving to a service model so as to own all aspects of vehicle ownership, including servicing.

The impact of the right to repair on vehicle sales, potentially

But the more profound and uncertain impact is on the costs of ownership. Early evidence from US agriculture has shown that the cost of ownership of vehicles is rising due to the higher repair costs, as the manufacturers reduce competition in vehicle repairs. But with a right to repair, this could potentially reduce the costs of vehicle ownership as people are encouraged to repair their own vehicles.

The impact of a right to repair on vehicle ownership costs, potentially

I should state now that this is theoretical. But this is based upon what we know about the impacts of the costs of vehicle ownership on use of vehicles, and consequently trips. A right to repair for vehicles - whilst great for consumers and a right that I personally feel should be bestowed - could actually result in more trips by cars as the cost of ownership is reduced.

I should also mention that I have not touched upon the impacts on the environment of extending vehicle life in terms of reducing scrappage and extraction of minerals for manufacturing. This is because I know little of these issues, but what I do know indicates that the right to repair could be a net benefit for the environment.

This goes to show that what is seemingly a minor and unrelated issue could potentially have an impact on how we plan transport. So transport planners, is the right to repair a good idea or not? Let me know your thoughts.

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Stat of the Day

Transport sector energy intensity in the Sustainable Development Scenario, 2000-2030 (Source: IEA)

Transport’s impacts on the environment are not good, but sometimes we have to remember that there is nuance that is often lost in the narrative. This data from the IEA shows that the carbon intensity of transport has been dropping in proportion to GDP globally and in developed nations. Although the performance of Latin America specifically is of concern. This is not to say there is no problem - far from it. But perhaps we could recognise the good and the bad?

Data Source: IEA

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If you don’t do anything else today, do this

Play the Moral Machine, and tell the world whether or not you want driverless cars to kills kids or the elderly.