Just in case you missed the Bristol Evening Post news article on Wednesday 10th October 2007 here is the item that is on the Bristol Evening Post news web page and click on the link: This Is Bristol
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POLL REVEALS COMMUTERS PREFER CARS
10:40 - 10 October 2007
Almost half of the commuters in Bristol currently use their car to get to work.
A poll of 50 city companies' employees showed that 47 per cent of those questioned still drive into town to get to work.
Nearly 9,000 commuters took part in the Big Commuter Count, which was conducted for the first time earlier this month by Bristol City Council.
There are no results from last year to compare to this year's data, although the council does plan to run the scheme every year from now on.The results show that:
Fewer people (9.8 per cent) use the bus to get to work than cycle (10.6 per cent)
Pedestrians make up just over 20 per cent of those polled
Forty per cent of people drive their own car to work, with another 6.4 per cent travelling as passengers
Only 40 out of the 8,796 people surveyed travel as passengers under the council's 2carshare.com scheme, which aims to promote car sharing as a more environmentally-friendly form of transport.
The city council, along with the three other authorities in the former Avon area, is in the early stages of implementing a £121 million joint local transport plan to improve congestion.
The council claimed the survey shows many employees in Bristol are prepared to leave the car at home when they can and use more sustainable ways of travel.But one transport expert said the figures in the commuter survey show that, despite the improvements which have already been put in place, people were still firmly stuck to using their cars.
By contrast, a spokesman for a bus users organisation said some form of road pricing was the only feasible way to cut congestion and reverse the "disappointing" results of the survey.Tim Green is director of the national Road Users Alliance.
He cited London as an example of a city with a fully integrated public transport system but said it was a "hopeless and slightly pointless task" trying to get people in Bristol to change their mode of travel.He said: "We believe that people should choose which form of transport system suits them best and that's likely to be the car."
The reasons for this shouldn't surprise anybody - it's cheaper, quicker, more reliable and there's more independence than any other way."
Getting the bus is very time consuming and people will make their judgements about comparing it with the car before choosing which one to take."
Mr Green called for better park and ride systems into the city, to be combined with a more extensive bus service which could then take commuters to their place of work.
He said: "There needs to be a service which can deliver people's needs and expectations instead of trying to try and change people's choices because the authorities don't approve."Phil Tonks, spokesman for Bus Users UK, said: "
When it comes to urban transport in cities there has to be a major drive to really give public transport very much increased priority."
These figures are disappointing and there has to be a focus on redressing the balance because it's causing a lot of congestion and environmental problems."
If you have a plan which brings in charging for cars and better priorities for buses then it will give people a better choice in the long run. It's a difficult choice for the politicians to take but they need to look at the future of places like Bristol, which is growing year on year."
Many of the companies which took part in the poll have travel plans in place, which promote more sustainable travel.
Mark Bradshaw, executive member for access and environment, said: "The information from this simple and easy-to-do survey will provide the council with essential travel data and employers with data to support their own travel plans."
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In the Bristol Evening Post newspaper there was also a small colour coded bar chart on "How Bristolians travel to work" and information is as follows:
- 40.9% drive to work in their car
- 20.4% walk to work
- 10.6% cycle to work
- 9.8% catch a bus to work (Does not include Park and Ride)
- 5.9% are car passengers (not through 2carshare.com)
- 5.1% travel by train
- 1.8% use the Park and Ride services
- 1.6% work from home
- 1.6% travel to work on motorbikes
- 1.3% use other ways of getting to work (?)
- 0.5% travel to work by moped/scooter
- 0.5% are car passengers sharing through the 2carshare.com
- 0.1% use taxi/minicab
- 0.1% use the ferry.
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