No New Motorways Says Nation, Braking Point
More than half (59%) say that they would be prepared to use their car less if public transport services were better. And only 3% agree strongly that the government is doing a good job with respect to its transport policies.
The results of the nationwide MORI poll, carried out between January and February this year amongst a representative sample of over 3,000 people are revealed in Braking Point (Thursday March 11th 19.00 on BBC TWO - except in Scotland) a one hour television special in which BBC Scotland, BBC Wales and BBC Northern Ireland and the BBC's ten English regions take the wheel to look at the nation's transport.
Braking Point examines key issues for transport in each locality and make comparisons with public transport systems in other parts of the world. Video diaries are being made by motorists who have agreed to give up their cars for a week and Braking Point follows their progress on public transport. Motorists, environmentalists, the public and politicians will debate the current state of Britain's transport systems and examine key proposals in the Government's Transport White Paper.
The comprehensive survey found that there is a high degree of private vehicle access with more than eight in ten having at least one car in the household and around a third having two or more cars. Road congestion is recognised as a serious problem by 2/3 of the public and the same proportion said that they would be prepared to use their cars less if public transport were better.
Key findings from the survey include:
Almost half the public feel that transport services are poorly integrated in their area and a quarter say that integration is very poor. Transport planners are perceived to be failing to pay sufficient attention to a range of different road users and are particularly thought to be neglecting cyclists (59%) and public transport (53%) in their decisions.
An overwhelming 91% of the public support the building of more car parks where these are tied in to public transport systems - for example park and ride schemes.
There is substantial support 71% of the public (69% with children at school) for persuading parents not to take their children to school by car and even amongst those who do currently use a car to get their children to school, almost half agree that they should be persuaded to take other forms of transport..
62% of the public say they would be prepared to pay higher taxes in order to achieve reduced fares on buses and trains with reliability of service being the first element that would need to be improved - highlighted by 2 in 3 (63%) in order to increase their usage of public transport with frequency of service (62%) and cost (59%) being key determinants.
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Technical details
MORI interviewed a quota sample (by sex and age) of 3,119 adults aged 16+. All interviews were conducted by telephone between January 20 and February 8 1999. A minimum of 199 interviews were conducted in each of 10 BBC English regions and the three BBC national areas of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, with overall results weighted to the correct population distribution between regions and nations.
