Transport and the Election Survey
An Ipsos survey for the RAC Foundation, undertaken shortly before the general election was called, highlights public concern with the state of local roads. Just over three-quarters, (77%) of British adults, report potholes and damaged roads as being a big problem in their local area and a little over half (52%) are dissatisfied with road maintenance. The harsh winter has clearly had an effect - this is the highest level of dissatisfaction with road maintenace for a decade. Reflecting this, repairing roads and pavements is given higher priority by the British public than improving buses, trains and other possible transport priorities.
Commenting on the results, Professor Stephen Glaister, director of the RAC Foundation said:
“This starkly underlines the huge inconvenience potholes are causing the majority of the Great British public and leaves would-be politicians in no doubt of where voters – no matter what their political persuasion - think the next Government’s transport priorities should lie. “The attention repeatedly focused on high speed rail misses the reality of most people’s lives which is that 92% of all passenger journeys take place on the roads. “All candidates would do well to note people’s dissatisfaction with the state of the road network which has leapt over the past year. “In 2006 1.7 million people signed a petition calling on Tony Blair not to introduce road pricing, and eventually the Government dumped the idea. Too often, this country’s 34 million car drivers are taken for granted by the politicians and most of the time they are the silent majority, but when they do speak they change public policy. Those who want to be our elected representatives ignore motorists’ views at their peril.”
Technical Note
The results are based on 1,025 face-to-face in-home interviews conducted by Ipsos with adults aged 16+ across England, Scotland and Wales conducted between 26th March and 1st April (before the election was called). Data has been weighted.
