The Congestion Challenge

The Congestion Challenge, a new Ipsos report for the RAC Foundation, provides findings from a survey of public attitudes towards car use and congestion. The report highlights the current and future challenges faced by policy makers and politicians in tackling congestion. The main findings from the survey include the following (our report includes trends since 1999): 

• 87% of people have either driven or been a passenger in a car within the last month. 
• 77% of drivers say they would find it difficult to adjust their lifestyles to being without a car. 
• 53% of drivers say they would rather take the chance of being stuck in a traffic jam than get public transport. 
• 41% of drivers consider traffic congestion to be a serious problem in their local area and 39% say they are personally affected by congestion in the journeys they make. 
• 61% of drivers think traffic congestion is going to deteriorate over the next five years. 
• 42% of drivers oppose building more motorways but 73% support widening existing motorways where there is a lot of congestion. Support for widening is significantly higher among drivers than across the public more generally but, still, nearly two-thirds of British adults are supportive (64%). 
• 44% of drivers oppose charges for driving into the centre of large towns and cities where there is major congestion while a similar proportion support this policy (41%). More drivers support motorway tolling schemes than oppose them (45% support; 38% oppose). 
• 50% of drivers support using motorway hard shoulders when signs permit and 65% support changing motorway speed limits depending on congestion. Support, though still high, is lower among the general public - 43% support driving on hard shoulders, 56% support variable motorway speed limits.

Download the full Computer Tables

Read the Press Release from the RAC Foundation

 Professor Stephen Glaister, Director of the RAC Foundation says:

"Over time people have come to regard congestion as less of an issue. But this flies in the face of the fact that congestion is increasing, so the depressing reality must be that motorists have become resigned to it. The public are also extremely pessimistic about what they expect from tomorrow's transport system. This is an indictment of the politicians who have repeatedly failed to tackle it in a meaningful way." "People are reliant on their cars and although there is widespread support for improvements in public transport, only a minority say they would switch to it in the near future." "It is apparent that radical approaches to easing congestion will be difficult for politicians to sell to a sceptical population. This was proved in Manchester where there was an overwhelming rejection of a local congestion charging scheme. But as MPs on the Transport Select Committee recognised last week, doing nothing is not an option and some sort of national scheme might be necessary. It is the job of politicians to convince those understandably wary motorists of the benefits. They must not shy away from the challenge just because it is hard." "However almost three quarters of motorists do back the widening of existing motorways and 65% support variable speed limits on motorways to keep traffic flowing smoothly. Ministers have a duty to properly fund the Highways Agency so it can deliver these policies." "There will be increasing pressure to reduce car use to help meet climate change objectives. Managing demand has a part to play, but the survey shows over three quarters of drivers would find it difficult to adjust to life without a car. It might be an unpalatable truth for some but cars are the true public transport - they transport most of the people, most of the time. The challenge is to make vehicles smaller, lighter and more fuel efficient, not eradicate them."

Ben Marshall, Research Director of Ipsos and report co-author says:

"Our new survey for the RAC Foundation provides further evidence of the pre-eminence of the car over other forms of transport. Most of us either drive or are driven in a car during the course of an average day." "The survey shows that while concerns about congestion are less pronounced that they were a decade ago, 41% of drivers now consider it to be a serious local problem. And there is a very strong sense things will only get worse." "There is scepticism about alternatives to the car. More than four in five - 84% - of those drivers who say they are personally affected by congestion say they couldn't adjust to life without their car. And 53% of drivers would rather be stuck in a traffic jam than have to get public transport." "This poses significant difficulties for policy-makers and politicians. According to our survey, the 'congestion challenge' could be even tougher than it once was; we have found a declining sense among the public that congestion is a problem, plus growing public distaste for flagship policy solutions like congestion charging." "Perhaps the biggest challenge facing policy-makers and politicians is what to do next. In particular, should public opinion be followed, or led? Who should do this, and how?"

Technical Note:

The survey involved 995 face-to-face in-home interviews with a representative sample of British adults aged 16+ with fieldwork undertaken 12-16 June 2009. Data have been weighted to be representative of region, age, gender, working status, tenure, socio-economic grade and car in household. There are 624 car drivers in our sample allowing us to analyse the views of this group within the bounds of sampling tolerances of +4 percentage points (our technical note at the end of the report provides further information).