Driving is an addiction like smoking and drinking, but seemingly much harder to give up. It may be that the alternatives are just too awful to contemplate.
Despite congestion, the rocketing cost of fuel and the dire warnings of environmentalists, we are just as dependent on our cars as we were more than a decade ago, according to a report from the RAC Foundation. Half of us have never used the bus.
Car dependency has increased steadily since 1993, except in London. The distances travelled by car have increased by 17 per cent.
Three quarters of us have a driving licence, up from two thirds just over a decade ago.
Nearly two thirds of women drive, compared with less than half in 1993, while in the same period the proportion of men behind the wheel has risen from 75 to 80 per cent.
There are now so many buses in London that the congestion-charged motorist can barely move for them.
Elsewhere bus use has declined by 13 per cent, and only 19 per cent of those surveyed admitted to regularly using one. A growing proportion never use them at all.
Users of public transport today are generally the same ones who used it in 1993, the report says. There appear to be few new converts to the idea of leaving the car at home.
One exception is the nation’s railways, where there has been a 40 per cent increase in train use over the period.
Commuters who have to stand on their journey to and from work may disagree with the report’s interpretation that the increase comes from a greater willingness to use the train for occasional trips rather than as the transport of choice.
The form of transport with the smallest carbon footprint is cycling, but despite the crowds gathering to see the English leg of the Tour de France last weekend, we are not donning the Lycra as much as we would like to think.
Over the period there was little change in the proportion of people cycling regularly, at 7 per cent of the overall population and 5 per cent of Londoners.
Transport for London, however, claims that the number of regular cyclists in the capital has increased by half since the congestion charge was introduced in 2002, despite the perils of sharing the road with all those red buses.
Men, the report says, are more likely to cycle regularly than women, and the greatest increase in pedal power over the past five years has been among 55 to 64-year-olds.
Elizabeth Dainton, the research development manager at the RAC Foundation, said: “It is clear from this research that we are still a very car-dependent nation. Trying and experiencing new things is part and parcel of our everyday lives, but where transport is concerned we tend to stick with what we know.”
She added: “If the nation is to be weaned off car dependency, public transport needs to provide a much better alternative than it does now.”
Then more people might find out what a bus is. It’s a vehicle you can’t smoke or drink in.
With the threat of sea levels rising you might find that the use of your car will be taken out of your hands by nature its not a question of I am not give up my car its a question of when ,their is also the fact that oil is running out we have burnt off most of the earths oil in less than a hundred years makes us a bit greedy and selfish. what have we left for our grandchildren,we have left them carbon , a heating up world , famine ,pollution so when you next turn that key to start up your car just think for one second what will do for your grandchildren today.
simon dent, newport, wales
I have tried public transport a couple of times on a weekly commute to Watford from Faversham. It took twice as long (4 hours), could not get me to work on time despite catching the earliest train, involved four changes of train & tube and got me to work feeling knackered, stressed and annoyed having wasted time and money getting to work. I can get to work using the car in 90 mins (this includes using the M25 and it has never taken me longer by car than by train) and for less money (even including maintenance, insurance, depreciation etc). Public transport will have to improve significantly in order to persuade me to change my mode of transport.
I also have no intention of moving closer to work or infact moving house because of work. This could potentially mean a house change with every job (imagine the expense?!), causing major disruption to family and friends and having to live in pretty undesirable areas. Running out of characters and so much left to say!!!
John, Faversham, Kent
Being disabled with Chronic Asthma (as a result of an accident at work) and Arthritis (from the medication taken to combat the asthma) on the few occasions when I am able to leave my home I am dependent on my car for mobility. Take the car away from me and I am housebound as I don't have London's public transport system to rely on in the area where I live: one bus every two hours for a limited part of the day describes the excellent public transport system that I, as a nasty car driving polluter, am choosing to ignore. So far as I can see the majority of the “Anti Car Nazis†appear to be London based and petrified of using a car in case it gets clamped, and they also have no idea at all of what most of the population outside of the capital have to put up with as Public Transport.
John, Falkirk,
Okay, here is a challenge to Gordon Brown to prove his green credentials. Gordon, how about reducing housing costs for anyone who moves house in order to be closer to work so they can cut their car use or use public transport instead. Agree to cancel stamp duty for anyone in this situation. Do I hear a deafening silence?
Kevin Thompson, Reading, UK
I have just worked out a journey by public transport and I can now understand why people cherish their cars. A journey that would take 15 minutes door to door by car is going to take and hour by public transport and that means a 1 mile walk to the station, a train journey, a bus journey and then a further 2 mile walk to my destination (walking time not included in the 1 hour estimation).
Lisa Simpson, Chester, UK
"Driving is an addiction like smoking and drinking". As long as people repeat this rubbish, we will not make any progress. People use cars because they are convenient, reliable and relatively pleasant. They work. Public transport is often inconvenient, unreliable and unpleasant. It works when it feels like working. The decision to use a car is rational. If you want to make people switch from cars to public transport you either have to make buses and trains better or make cars less convenient by harrassing car users. A lazy and complacent bureaucracy will naturally prefer the second option to one that involves hard work, skill and accepting responsibility.
Frank Upton, Solihull,
I would like to use public transport but it just too expensive. 80p for less than 1 mile in to our town centre. I would use public transport to go to work but for a start there isn't a service to any industrial estates in town and if there was the price would too high.
The government has to get the price of public transport down to a low level make it worth our while instead of over pricing every thing like they do.
I could go on!!
Jon Mcknight, Melton Mowbray, England
Others here are adamant they are NOT addicted to cars. Just forced to use them through lack of choice. Well to me this is the same thing, except that the "addiction" is societal not individual.
A drug addiction begins as something recreational. As it takes hold and the sufferer craves more. It becomes the focus, and other important aspects of life get neglected. Health breaks down, quality of life is lost, yet feeding the habit has to continue at all costs.
Replace "drug" by "car" and we have an apt description of what has happened. Britain is more addicted than most of Europe because of the way it squandered the best alternative - its railways. Tracks were ripped out in the 1960's and money poured into motorways. This started the addiction and it has not stopped. For decades, accommodating the car has been the No1 focus.
Switzerland chose a different route. It retained its railways, electrified them, grew them, and is now far better placed to cut car-use
David Bond, Wellington, New Zealand
In the area in which I live, North Wiltshire, there has been a large increase in bus use. This has been triggered by the provision of free passes for all over 60 years of age. This surge in use has led to more bus routes starting up serving residential areas and this, coupled with steep increases in car parking charges in the towns, has led to a further increase in bus use. The provision of decent bus shelters is also a significant factor in encouraging car users to take to buses. It is interesting to note that there is also significant use of taxis, generally by people who appear to be less well off.
Jim Andress, Chippenham, Wiltahire
I got the Bus once.
A little place called Audenshaw, in tameside metropolitan bourough, on eht east side of manchester, to Altrincham town centre, just south of manchester.
A journey of about 15 miles I've done in 20 minutes after a world cup game.
Took me two and a half hours, leaving at 6am and getting to work at 8.30am.
Oh, and it cost almost £10 return.
I could buy a scooter, a helmet, insurance and a years petrol for significantly less, which I did.
Lack of roads causes congestion.
Perhaps if the M60 at Sharston had more than two lanes it wouldnt back up for an hour.
The best solution of course, is change work hours. even leaving at 4.45 not 5 saves me a lot of travel time
Dominic, Manchester, UK
Yet again the old lie that fuel prices are 'rocketing' is repeated. Petrol is about 20% cheaper in real terms than 30 years ago, and cars are half the cost, THAT is why there are so many cars about. To cut back on pollution needs a radical re think on the way that we work, and the cost of public transport which has been allowed to climb much faster than wages. It seems stupid that companies are encouraged to recruit from vast distances rather than encouraged, by tax breaks, into true local recruitment.
When I started work I had to live within 4 miles of my place of work, my employer now allows it employees to travel ANY distance to work. That is sheer stupidity, allowed by a public body.
Barry P, Havant, England
I'm fed up with this dumb argument.
Anyone living in a rural as I do, knows we do not have any significant public transport as an alternative. To do business in London costs £220 day return!!! A flight to Manchester costs £230 return.... Despite rising fuel and motoring costs, it is quicker and cheaper to drive.
The Government is not interested in reducing car usage because it is a huge cash cow, yet motorists are continuously pilloried.
Until there is a complete transport policy overhaul and investment in alternative public transport (and I don't mean throwing more subsidy at rubbish franchise operators), there will be no alternative but to continue to use their cars.
Whatever happened to Labour's promise of a transport policy???
chris O'connell, st austell, uk
when we live in a country where public transport is a joke, priced far too high, is unrealiable and we're behind the rest of the developed world; I guess the car is the only option.
It's the duty of this government to stop subsidising public transport with our money when the companies are making record profits. I have to laugh, otherwise I'd cry!!
sally young, brighton, uk
Every day in the UK hundreds of bikes are put in the crusher. They are bikes that are left chained to railings because someone stole a wheel, or something.
I contacted my local environment authority an asked if they might make these bike parts available to schools so children could build their own bikes at little cost. The authority stated there was no way that could be done.
A bit of imagination would go a long way with such authorities.
Stan Hayward, London, uk
What the policy makers seem to not be able to grasp, is that the UK is laid out in a manner which makes it dependent on the car. We have grown out of town shopping centres, and many people now live in the outskirts of a city. Public transport can never go from where to where you want to go and when you want it, and that is just yourself. Add 2.4 children and a working mum findsit simplly impossible to use public trasnport; it will take you all day just to get your groceries, and even then you can't carry more than two bags. With most people living in huge urban jungles, we are totally dependent on oil to get the food to where we need it, without it we would all starve to death. Cycling to work just isn't going to work on the M4, when its raining. Five steps to conjestion free easy life...
1) forget 9 till 5
2) work from home when possible
3) consolidate your journeys
4) move closer to work and school
5) move away from the south east
Dr Cross, Derby, UK
The car is not important but is made to seem so as we have moulded our lifestyles around it. If you want to live 50 miles or more away from where you work, particularly in an area not served by public transport, then obviously a car is essential. We do have a habit of modifying our behaviour to embrace a technology and then define that technology as essential. Usually to the detriment of society.
Mike Poulsen, Reading, Berkshire
the rail network is not affordable to many people who need to travel to work every day, full stop. it is far too expensive. if i had a car i'd be unlikely to get out of it as well.
weekend pleasure trips by train cost far too much also, discounted tickets must be purchased many weeks in advance so you can't be spontaneous.
another poster mentioned that brown hasn't mentioned transport once since becoming PM. perhaps he'd better start!
wanda sykes, worthing,
Public Transport is not the answer, it is only viable if you live within London. If like me you live outside the M25 and work in London then it is Expensive & Unreliable and I have spent many a night stranded with no alternative means of getting home. Car Sharing is the answer, the Government needs to encourage this as opposed to penalising the motorist.
Richard, Chelmsford,
If people could live near their place of work, car use would be greatly reduced. Instead people are forced to commute long distances, not though choice, but because there is no affordable accommodation close to major employment centres around London.
Let's apply a bit of imagination to solving this problem and people would not only generate less CO2 but they would have more time for family life or leisure.
J Stanley, Palaiseau, France
Hopping has a smaller carbon footprint than walking :)
On a more serious note - there are too many people. Thats why transport / housing / NHS / EARTH etc etc are overstretched. There needs to be birth control limits before we can tackle the current issues.
David, London,
The UK population seemed to ignore what in my opinion was the best piece of industrial design the world had seen at the end of the 20th century. The BMW C1. 'What's that?', I hear everyone cry! Let me enlighten you. It's a scooter with all the benefits being on two wheels brings, with hardly any of its downsides. In London, you get everywhere quickly and hassle-free, on time and without bathing in your own sweat. You pay no congestion charge, no parking fees, in fact, petrol at 100mpg is the only expense. Yet it protects you with a rigid safety cage that is as safe as a small car in an impact and negates the need to wear cumbersome and hot motorbike gear, keeping you safe and dry.
To illustrate just how good this piece of kit it, I own a Jaguar too, but never use it because the C1 is so good. Sadly, they stopped making it because no one bought it, but it has transformed my life, and is cheaper than an annual travelcard. To all Londoners: Nobody does it better.
Stefan Szecsei, London, UK
Every day in the UK hundreds of bikes are put in the crusher. They are bikes that are left chained to railings because someone stole a wheel, or something.
I contacted my local environment authority an asked if they might make these bike parts available to schools so children could build their own bikes at little cost. The authority stated there was no way that could be done.
A bit of imagination would go a long way with such authorities.
Stan Hayward, London, uk
I gave up driving cars in 1992.
I used a train. First Wales & West, then Wessex, and now First Great Western: service declined at each change of hands! With First Great Western there is no guarantee that you can board the service of your choice. So you must wait an hour for the next train. I reckon I spend a day and a half a week travelling (or waiting) for cancelled, delayed, and filthy trains. The cost is 29 pounds sterling for a total of 220 miles of train travel. The environmental cost per person is low because the carriages are jammed to the doors.
The government, in its Invitation to Tender classes commuter travel as "leisure". The tender also called for a reduction in service. First great Western believes the government and carried out no assessment of the service it committed itself to deliver.
First Great Western does not use ticket sales data to log demand and build up expected demand curves. Services are cut back and fares jacked up. Result: Chaos. Give me my car.
Simon E. Bode, Bath, UK
I cycled to work for perhaps 5 years, but I've had too many close calls to continue this. Many car drivers do not give cyclists enough room, some are intentionally abusive and some just don't pay enough attention. The "token" cycle lanes are a joke. Roads are currently not designed to accomadate cars and cycles and its the cyclist who's exposed to the greatest risk.
Public transport is sooooo ridiculously overpriced. Train travel has got to get cheaper (a recent "business" trip cost £122 from Kingston to Coventry!! Vs £30 petrol.)
Bus fairs went up about 30% in Kingston last year which is a great incentive to use the bus!!!
Alternatives to driving are simply not encouraged. It's a sad fact.
Simon R, Kingston, Surrey
In the period that car use has risen what was done to improve public transport? Bus lanes yes but the number of buses are fewer, especially outside "office hours."
Trains since privatisation don't link up making journeys much longer & more tiring. The cost compared to the car is higher day to day (not counting overheads).
To get to work ***on time*** you use a car.
If you live in the country you need a car.
If you're elderly or disabled life is far more bearable with a car.
If you have children, shopping, packages, a car makes sense.
If you're scared of street or isolation violence you're safer in a car.
To work to live, you run a car so you can visit family, friends, go out eves/ Sundays not just drone commute/ live to work.
For periods of privacy to yourself in a crowded life, your car is your personal retreat. This last was found to be the major reason for commuter reluctance by research in LA.
Addicted? Get real - look at real needs - don't just spout superficial insults.
Shan Morgain, Newport, UK
What the policy makers seem to not be able to grasp, is that the UK is laid out in a manner which makes it dependent on the car. We have grown out of town shopping centres, and many people now live in the outskirts of a city.
Public transport can never go from where to where you want to go and when you want it, and that is just yourself. Add 2.4 children and a working mum findsit simplly impossible to use public trasnport; it will take you all day just to get your groceries, and even then you can't carry more than two bags. With most people living in huge urban jungles, we are totally dependent on oil to get the food to where we need it, without it we would all starve to death.
Cycling to work just isn't going to work on the M4, when its raining.
Five steps to conjestion free easy life...
1) forget 9 till 5
2) work from home when possible
3) consolidate your journeys
4) move closer to work and school
5) move away from the south east
Dr Cross, Derby, UK
Why can't we use our cars less? Because of the crass stupidity of planners. They blindly go ahead with out of town shopping centres and supermarkets and green field sites which are inaccessible without a car, whilst building large housing estates miles from amenities or centres of employment.
Then the brainless morons want to introduce congestion charging to pay for further planning mayhem.
My local authority has a planning policy of building bus stops that are stepped out into the road to "promote traffic calming by preventing vehicles passing" Splendid! Particularly while the bus driver stops and has a 20 minute fag break. Thank goodness there's only 3 buses a day through the village.
David Brown, Bath, Somerset
Last week I bought bus ticket. 10 miles jouney cost 4.6£. Too expensive for me. next time I'll drive by car.
john, Luton,
The alternatives to the car are often a lot more viable than people think. But it would make a world of difference if the various campaigns to get people out of their cars would stress the benefits of cycling, using the bus, whatever, rather than simply hectoring drivers who often have little choice but to drive. I've just got a car again after three car-free years, but I prefer to ride a motorcycle, cycle or take the bus. Problem is, current policy is far more about discouraging car use than promoting the alternatives. More positive policies would make a massive difference rather than the somewhat worthy and hair-shirted tone of many of the government's campaigns.
Mark McArthur-Christie, Bampton, Oxfordshire
well the car blew up, so I am trying to live via public transport and bike until it gets fixed. The supermarket run was fun - there is no bus service between my house and the supermarket. Wobbled 2 miles back with a loaded rucksack. Car parked in the bike lane along the main road. I only live 5 miles from work, luckily as again there is no bus service. No space at work to keep clothes or a dry a towel - needed if you get caught in a thunderstorm. And luckily again, my daughters out of school stuff has finished for the summer - the roads -or rather car drivers - are far too dangerous to have her cycling on them.
louise, ipswich,
What arrant nonsense! 'Driving is an addiction...' Piffle. What, in the name of all that's holy, is 'the independent body established to take on the role of protecting the interest of the motorist' doing promulgating the propaganda of ideologically-motivated social scientists? Such a concept as 'car dependency' should be laughed out of court for intellectual vacuity. 'Behaviour change'? 'Modal shift'? The behaviour that needs changing is that of the plethora of interfering busybodies who justify their own existence by telling the rest of use how we should live our lives; and as for 'modal shift', well, that needs to move away from social engineering and towards more genuine engineering of the road network. I am perfectly capable of making 'informed choices' on my own without the help of these so-called experts, and I choose to drive, to cycle, or to walk, as occasion demands. But in this strange world of beadledom it seems that it's not enough to exercise choice on one's own.
Iner Dempsey, Crieff, Scotland
To get to work I use two motorways and a selection of A roads. I did try public transport for a short trial period but the time taken to get to work was greater than one and a half hours (the same journey by car is one hour). The distance I travel to work is 28 miles but I need my car to do my job, I am a NVQ assessor for a work based learning provider. If we are to have public transport system that people want to use it must imorove standards roght across the board eg clean buses, on time and with available seating.
roy simmons, birmingham,
it's all very well if you live in London, but other cities have to rely solely on private bus companies.
The 5 mile journey from Roundhay to Leeds centre takes more than 40 minutes on the bus and costs exactly the same as the 10-15 minute car journey to the free car park my company provides. When I take the car, I can choose when I want to leave home or the office, whereas getting the bus can mean a 40 minute wait in the rain before the journey even starts.
Rick, Leeds, West Yorkshire
when we live in a country where public transport is a joke, priced far too high, is unrealiable and we're behind the rest of the developed world; I guess the car is the only option.
It's the duty of this government to stop subsidising public transport with our money when the companies are making record profits. I have to laugh, otherwise I'd cry!!
sally young, brighton, uk
It takes me 25 mins to drive to work, it would take me a 20 min walk to the ferry terminal then 30 min ferry ride, then another 40 to 60 mins on busses to get to work.
Or i could get a train taking an hour to miss out the walk and the ferry, but hang on i would have a 20 min walk to the train station and would still have the 60 min bus ride with a probable 20 min walk at least on the other end.
Lets see now a 2 and half hour travel time for public transport that would cost me 5 times as much as driving would even with having to pay £1.40 for the tunnel in the car.
Or a 25 min drive to work, as for moving closer to work that would be great except i work in the least nicest part of liverpool, o and as it is at 27 i still live at home after beeing priced out the houseing market.
Public traqnsport is simple not even worth a 1st look in this country never mind a 2nd.
Mr W B Jones, Wirral, Merseyside
If the government were really interested in the environment they would be forcing car makers to reduce weight at the same time as reducing emissions.
The idea that CO2 is the only pollutant out of a cars exhaust is slightly infantile.
The say that everyone should leave their cars at home is also fairly infantile. I know lets all not go to work for 5 days a week - that'll save the planet!!!
Dominic Britt, Sheffield, England
My idea for reducing the environnmental impact of cars is to introduce a programme of 'carless days'. By law every car owner would be required to have one day per week when it is illegal for them to drive their car. The day would be determined at random and visible with a compulsory sticker on the windscreen. This would immediately reduce car use. I would also introduce congestion charges in every major conurbation and raise taxes for all large gas guzzling vehicles. Taxes must be used for introducing cheaper environmentally friendly public transport systems, including cycle lanes running on closed former roads. Investment in cycle storage facilities, as in Holland is required too.
Tom, Oxford, UK
What the policy makers seem to not be able to grasp, is that the UK is laid out in a manner which makes it dependent on the car. We have grown out of town shopping centres, and many people now live in the outskirts of a city.
Public transport can never go from where to where you want to go and when you want it, and that is just yourself. Add 2.4 children and a working mum findsit simplly impossible to use public trasnport; it will take you all day just to get your groceries, and even then you can't carry more than two bags. With most people living in huge urban jungles, we are totally dependent on oil to get the food to where we need it, without it we would all starve to death.
Cycling to work just isn't going to work on the M4, when its raining.
Five steps to conjestion free easy life...
1) forget 9 till 5
2) work from home when possible
3) consolidate your journeys
4) move closer to work and school
5) move away from the south east
Dr Cross, Derby, UK
"Driving is an addiction"
A silly, sweeping statement. I can either spend 50 minutes in my car getting to work in comfort at a time of my choosing (usually) or 90 minutes having to change three times on dirty, crowded and completely unreliable trains that may or more likely may not get me to work on time.
I can't cycle on the motorway I drive on and there is no bus route/routes I can practicably take.
Perhaps if the houses near my workplace weren't selling for £300k+ things would be different but they aren't, therefore spare me condescending tosh such as "Trying and experiencing new things is part and parcel of our everyday lives, but where transport is concerned we tend to stick with what we know."
Dave, Greenhithe, Kent
Please dont blame Thatcher for the state of Public transport. Not all of it has been privatised and Im sure I remember New Labour making it one of their priorities. You would have thought that there would have been some sort of change after 10 years in power. It has only got worse, more expensive and more dangerous. I wonder if the 'dangerous' element is because New Labour cut police funding so just a few Police now sit in an office watcning a surveillence camera rather than being out on the beat?
Paul Ryder, London, UK
I would love to give up my car and would have done 10 years ago if councils had delivered a reasonable public transport in Reading. Whilst all costs to drivers have gone up, less parking, more congestion (through bad planning rather than capacity), etc, there has been no change in the frequecy of the bus service to attract drivers and no reliability. How can one make appointments anywhere when transport is nover on time?
Cars are here to stay unless public transport improves by 20 fold at least from the pits it is in now.
B Sian, Reading, Berks
Last night I was stuck on a London-bound train from Cardiff for four hours, two hours longer than the journey should take. On the journey to Cardiff on Saturday morning I was delayed by nearly an hour. For these reasons alone I will take a car in preference to the train.
Mike, London,
There is no public transport to my workplace; move then.
They've moved my job; move again then!
I feel dislocated; its your own fault for moving - move again!
Oh no I'm homeless - i can't afford a house
The logic of some new labour / tory MPs in their cosseted life-styles is worrying...
John, Birmingham,
I sold my car because I don't need it anymore. I use public transport all the time now (I used it a lot before though I have to say). Using public transport does make you feel virtuous (as well as, at various times, hot, sweaty, tired, annoyed and occasionally downright angry).... but I do miss driving. I can't explain why exactly - the freedom, the choice, the fun that driving allows....?
Rosie Blackburn, London, UK
Riding a bike has the smallest carbon footprint- great if that was actually what Ken and New Labour etc cared about but the truth is cycling also presents the least opportunity to make you open your wallet- therefore don't expect any meaningful attempt to make cycling around London any easier or safer.
Jo, London, UK
Every day in the UK hundreds of bikes are put in the crusher. They are bikes that are left chained to railings because someone stole a wheel, or something.
I contacted my local environment authority an asked if they might make these bike parts available to schools so children could build their own bikes at little cost. The authority stated there was no way that could be done.
A bit of imagination would go a long way with such authorities.
Stan Hayward, London, uk
I use public transport to get to and from work. At present, I leave my house at 6:55am and get to work at 8:30am. I leave work at 4:30pm, and get home at 6:30pm.
If I drove (which I will be doing from next week), I could leave my house at 7:45am and be home by no later than 5:30pm. An extra two hours onto my day that would have been lost to travelling on buses. That's ten hours a week, or somewhere in the region of 460 hours a year that I am losing to being on buses. NINETEEN DAYS A YEAR.
I would even accept that huge loss of time (in the name of the environment) if buses were punctual, clean, quiet, and more convenient (i.e. - I dont have to walk three quarters of a mile to get to the nearest bus stop).
I'm happy to do my bit - but there's only so much I can take before I crave the independence and freedom of a car.
J Lawson, Oxford,
If people could live near their place of work, car use would be greatly reduced. Instead people are forced to commute long distances, not though choice, but because there is no affordable accommodation close to major employment centres around London.
Let's apply a bit of imagination to solving this problem and people would not only generate less CO2 but they would have more time for family life or leisure.
J Stanley, Caen, France
Cars would not be polluting anywhere the amount if government and Local Authorities used some common sense.
Cardiff must be the Traffic Light centre of the country stop start on your journey never get into a gear that lessens pollution add to this 20mph pollution zones although I do recognise the need around schools and hospitals, then you have the biggest creation of pollution STEAL 50% of the highway and give it over to Buses mostly never used for 70% of the day again buses during most of the day half or less than half full, now being a cynic this would lead up to a wonderful excuse for congestion charging i.e. create the congestion then charge for it still won't get rid of the pollution.
Answer
Charge extra council TAX where more than one vehicle is registered at each household perhaps a bit more car sharing in a family may then take place.
You would also see at a glance who the polluters were
Now that would reduce pollution and a lot of cars much too simple though.
Norman Fisher, Cardiff, UK
As a population we may be getting more car dependant but that is only due to we have to drive further to get a better job to cope with the rising house prices.
For me to drive to my work its a 30min car journey, however to use public transport that goes up to a 90min bus journey. In situations like that people will chose a car over public transport and unless you live inside the M25 public transport really is a joke.
Dave, Bourne, UK
when we live in a country where public transport is a joke, priced far too high, is unrealiable and we're behind the rest of the developed world; I guess the car is the only option.
It's the duty of this government to stop subsidising public transport with our money when the companies are making record profits. I have to laugh, otherwise I'd cry!!
sally young, brighton, uk
More should get on their bikes, if only for the satisfaction of overtaking a gridlocked £50,000 porsche!
Apart from that, it keeps you fit, you save money and you arrive at work wide awake.
The only downside is the weather and being a bit sweaty!
Anthony Smales, Beverley, UK
Not everyone lives in London. If you live in the country, public transport is nearly non existant. If we had a bus to work I would sell the car tomorrow.
Bill, King's Lynn, Norfolk
Every day in the UK hundreds of bikes are put in the crusher. They are bikes that are left chained to railings because someone stole a wheel, or something.
I contacted my local environment authority an asked if they might make these bike parts available to schools so children could build their own bikes at little cost. The authority stated there was no way that could be done.
A bit of imagination would go a long way with such authorities.
Stan Hayward, London, uk
I think your stats on cycling are wrong, London has the highest proportion of cyclists, while the percentage of regular commuters by bike of the population as a whole is just 2%, not 7%. This compares to successful cities like Zurich or Copenhagen where over 1/3 of all trips are made by bicycle or on foot.
There is a feeling that we have turned a corner, cycling in London is climbing fast with 450,000 trips made by bicycle everyday according to the London cycling Campagn, apart from a few exceptions like Hull, York and Oxford where the cycling population is also climbing elsewhere it appears to have bottomed out nationwide.
The perception of danger is a big barrier but statistics show that the health benefits of an active lifestyle significantly outweight the risks of accident. As drivers become more aware of cyclists accidents are also falling and taking an adult road cycle training course can help new cyclists to ride more confidently on the road which further reduce the risks
Rory, London, London
No surprise here. Economists have long pointed out that drivers don't meet the costs of the delay they collectively cause to other road users - not to mention pollution - but politicians (with the notable exception of Ken Livingstone) have been too scared of the powerful motoring lobby to act. So we have public transport users paying high fares to travel in crowded vehicles while, once you have a car, driving is both cheap and comfortable yet you use road space wastefully and delay buses. This crazy situation seems unlikely to change any time soon - I haven't heard Gordon Brown mention transport once since he became PM.
Barry, Wallington, UK
Let's be honest, this isn't about cars or public transport. It isn't about green house gasses! Let's get down to the real nitty gritty! The population of this planet is far too great! Hot spots all over the world with people cramed into every place possible. Our own country is grossly over populated in some areas, whilst there is room plenty in other areas. We need to debate the way forward in population growth of our world with urgency!
RayB, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK
What buses and trains. The public transport system is a mess and has been since Thatchers privatisation. I used to use buses and trains all the time till thatchers little exercise. Now they are too expensive and trains are overcrowded. I can fly to parts of the uk cheaper than I can buy a train ticket
Alan , Chelmsford, UK
Last week I bought train tickets to Cardiff. They cost £27, two singles. Checking today, for the same journey, I would have had to pay £33.50, for two singles. If I was to travel this weekend coming, it would cost me £53.80 I can drive to Cardiff and back, from Plymouth, for less than that. Including the toll bridge money.
I catch the bus to and from work. Late night, I catch the last bus home which is always , thankfully, on time. But it's pot luck if the going to work to bus is on time, or even if it turns up at all. I have had to get a taxi in last minute due to missed out buses. Costing me even more.
If I need to go somewhere, I like to travel at a time that suits me, at the moment, the public transport infrastructure in this country is not only unreliable, it doesn't offer solutions to peoples actual needs. Too often its dirty, late, and dangerous at night. I'm trying, I've given up the car for now, but I don't know if it will last.
A bike? I wish it was practical late nights.
Jennifer Hynes, Plymouth, England
Walking has a smaller carbon footprint than cycling.
Gael Impiazzi, Leeds,