Traffication – How Cars Destroy Nature and What We Can Do About It

Traffication develops a bold new idea: that the trillions of miles of driving we do each year are just as destructive to our natural environment as any of the better known threats, such as habitat loss or intensive farming.

Using the latest research, Paul Donald’s book reveals how road traffic shatters essential biological processes, affecting how animals communicate, move around, feed, reproduce and die. Most importantly, it shows that the influence of traffic extends well beyond the verge, and that a busy road can strip the wildlife from our countryside for miles around. In the UK, almost nowhere is exempt from this environmental toll. Yet the final message is one of hope: By identifying the car as a major cause of the catastrophic loss of wildlife, the solutions to our biodiversity crisis suddenly become much clearer.

The first step to solving any problem is to recognise that it exists in the first place. But with road traffic, we are not even at that crucial initial stage in our recovery.

The book is available to buy here.

Traffication tells the story of how quickly the car transformed our world and how, equally quickly, scientists highlighted the downsides. But despite several decades of growing evidence, the impact of traffic on the environment remains focused upon congestion, climate change and air pollution, while ignoring the more rural issues that impact directly on nature. The author offers beautiful, heart felt writing and some hopeful concluding chapters.
—Baroness Jenny Jones, UK Green Party

The ethical choice

The ETA was established in 1990 as an ethical provider of green, reliable travel services. Over 30 years on, we continue to offer cycle insurance (covers cargo bikes), breakdown cover  and mobility scooter insurance while putting concern for the environment at the heart of all we do.

The Good Shopping Guide judges us to be the UK’s most ethical provider.