National Travel Attitudes Survey

1st February 2020

Bike commuter, by Steve McDonald, Licence CC BY 2.0

Cycling UK reports that 76% of people in England believe that everyone has a responsibility to use their cars less for the sake of the environment. The campaign organisation wants the government to set traffic reduction targets and encourage more people onto their bikes.

The National Travel Attitudes Survey's questions included some about Road Travel and the Environment, and it is the answers to these questions that are reported by Cycling UK.

Road building

Asked if they were concerned about damage to the countryside from building roads, this is how people responded:

73% were very or fairly concerned
only 28% were not very or not at all concerned
(I don't know why the percentages don't quite add up to 100)

These attitudes closely reflect those of respondents to North Yorkshire's Congestion Survey, in relation to the so-called Harrogate relief road.

Unfortunately, the Conservative manifesto proposed a huge programme of road-building, and nothing for cycling - the exact opposite of what the public wants. The government's priorities should be changed as soon as possible.