Anyone in Britain who succumbed to the blandishments to "holiday at home" may find that it is standing room only on the buses, especially in seaside resorts. There are just so many over-60s waving their bus passes around.
One consequence of this is that local authorities have been hit with larger than expected bills to pay for this concession. Unfortunately, perhaps, they do not reap any of the secondary benefits said to arise from the scheme, such as the reduced health service bills that should be a consequence of having a fitter, healthier and generally smug senior citizenry.
More significantly for environment policy, it is hard to see how local authorities benefit financially from having fewer cars on the road, another undoubted consequence of free bus travel for the over 60s. But this is not the only example of climate gains that are obscured by clouds of subsidies. Rail travel is another example of 'carbon credits' that get lost in the system.
Recent announcements that the UK plans to build a high-speed train network fit for the 21st century have prompted letters to editors about the cost of rail travel. When it is much cheaper to fly the length of the country – one writer quoted £110 to fly to Glasgow against £228 by train – why would anyone think of taking the greener route? Roads have similar cost advantages – £50 to diesel it from Bristol to London and back, against a train ride at £153 return.
What is missing from these numbers, which are almost certainly selective, is any recognition of the cost of the carbon saved by bus and train trips.
Carbon trading is such a murky pursuit that European governments have had to adjust VAT regimes to avoid fraud. So it isn't likely that we will see carbon costing in the consumer arena for a while. But there are ways of adding it to the policy brew, in setting transport subsidies, for example.
Why not reward local authorities for all those bus-pass miles? It may be the same as compensating them for whatever extra costs the greying travellers impose on the bus networks, but it sounds a bit more virtuous and sends out clearer messages.
One day, when climate change really begins to bite – probably after today's holders of the senior bus pass have added to climate change in a very different, and final, way – the time may come when everyone has a carbon allowance. Then the bus pass would be a way not just of paying for a trip but of proving that you are entitled to a few miles behind your own steering wheel.
When it comes to trains, how about tweaking the huge subsidies thrown at the railway system to reflect the reduction in carbon emissions? There too the day may arrive when every mile travelled by train brings with it an entitlement to hit the road. It would do no harm to start today by overtly linking transport subsidies to environmental benefits.
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