Seven in ten UK adults say their lifestyle means they need a vehicle

A new Ipsos survey finds 69% of UK adults say their current lifestyle means they need a vehicle, including 40% who strongly agree with the statement (17% disagree). Nearly half of those surveyed (47%) agree that transport links in their local area are not good enough, compared with 31% who disagree.

The public are more likely to disagree than agree that they would like to have access to a car without the hassle of owning one (43% disagree, and 28% agree with this statement). Nearly six in ten adults (58%) disagree that it is less important to own a car nowadays, while 22% agree with this statement. A similar proportion (61%) disagree that sharing, renting or hiring a car instead of owning one is a good option for them (16% agree).

The UK public are split on whether they would like to cycle more than they currently do – 37% agree with this statement, 36% disagree, and 19% had no views either way. Sixty one percent of adults say it is too dangerous for them to cycle on the roads, and 49% agree they are not the kind of person who rides a bicycle. Over four in ten adults (42%) think the council should do more to encourage cycling in their local area, 23% disagree, and 32% neither agree nor disagree.

When presented with a list of current and hypothetical actions to reduce the UK’s carbon emissions from transport, the public were most likely to support ‘encouraging more people to walk or cycle instead of driving a car’ – 65% support this, compared with 12% who are opposed. Nearly as many people support encouraging more people to use public transport instead of driving a car (62% compared with 13% who are opposed).

Around half of the public support encouraging people to replace some flights with train or coach journeys (51%, compared with 19% who oppose this). A smaller proportion (26%) support encouraging people to travel abroad less (42% oppose this).

Nearly four in ten UK adults (38%) said they support schemes that charge road users a fee to drive in and around certain towns and city centres, while 41% are opposed to this and 18% have no views either way. Support for road user charging to drive in and around certain towns and city centres rises to 59% if all revenues raised would be used to improve public transport, 51% if all revenues raised were used to improve air quality, and 51% if charges were higher for more polluting vehicles. Forty eight percent of the public would support road user charging to drive in and around certain towns and city centres if all revenues raised would be used to tackle climate change, and 41% would support it if all revenues raised would be returned to the road user through lower road tax. 

Technical note

Ipsos interviewed a representative online random probability sample of 5,875 UK adults aged 16+, conducted via the Ipsos KnowledgePanel UK. Interviews took place 25 April – 1 May 2024.  Data has been weighted to the known offline population proportions. All polls are subject to a wide range of potential sources of error.