Who makes this, and why you should check it

1 · What this is

upgrdme works out what your car costs you a mile, what your own neighbourhood already manages without one, how much of your household’s carbon it is, and how much of your life is built around it. Every figure comes from a published source, named and dated on the page it appears on, so you can check it rather than believe it.

It is not a calculator that sells you something at the end. For most people in most places the honest answer is that they need a car, and the site says so in those words.

2 · Who makes it

I am Martin Hill. I spent thirty years building enterprise systems, and I built this because when I wanted to know what my own car cost me, nobody would tell me without trying to sell me something.

I gave up a car once my children were old enough that the seats came out, and never replaced it. That is the easy version of this decision and I know it. Most of the site is about the harder ones.

3 · Where I stand

Shared transport has been an abiding interest of mine for years, and it is fair to ask whether that shapes what this site tells you.

Among other things, I have been a trustee and treasurer of CoMoUK, the UK shared transport charity, and I step down as treasurer at the end of 2026. upgrdme is not run by CoMoUK, is not funded by them, and they have no say in what it says.

That is a reason to check my figures, not to take them on trust. Every number here carries its source, its table and its date precisely so that you can.

4 · How it is paid for

Today I pay for it myself. There are no advertisements, no affiliate links and no sponsors, and nothing on this site earns me anything.

I would like it to pay for itself eventually, and a sponsor is the likeliest way. If that happens, two things hold. Whoever is paying will be named on this page before the money starts, and no sponsor will appear in, beside or anywhere near the answer the tool gives you about your own area. A figure you cannot trust is worth nothing to a sponsor either.

5 · How the numbers work

Census full counts for what your neighbours do. DVLA for what is parked on your streets. The National Travel Survey for how far people actually drive. DESNZ conversion factors for emissions, on the same boundary for every fuel, because choosing a kinder one for either side is how these comparisons are usually rigged.

Where something is an assumption rather than a published figure — depreciation, servicing, how many of a dropped car’s miles come back on the others — the page says so beside the number and lets you overwrite it.

Where a figure does not exist, the site says that too. Northern Ireland is not covered because the licence to publish it has not been granted. The emissions of building a car are not counted because there is no official UK figure and the studies disagree. An empty space with a reason in it beats a plausible guess.

6 · What happens to what you type

The calculators run in your browser. Everything you put into them stays there and goes when you close the tab. Nothing is kept and nothing is sent anywhere.

Your postcode is sent to this site to look up your area, in a POST request so it stays out of server logs and out of your browser history. It is not stored and it is never shared with anybody.

There is nothing to sign in to today. I would like there to be, because the Car Dependency Star is worth coming back to in six months to see whether your shape has changed, and that needs somewhere to keep it. If and when that arrives it will be opt-in, and this page will say what is kept and for how long before you are asked.

If this site ever carries advertising or sets a cookie, you will be asked first and this page will say who is paying and what for. What will not change is that nothing anyone pays me can alter what the arithmetic says.