Cars are increasingly blamed for climate change, but there’s little public appetite to increase taxes or curb their use, according to the latest Department for Transport report on public attitudes to transport and climate change.
The survey, which started in 2006, canvassed 1007 respondents. In 2008 36% thought cars contributed most to climate change, but this was up to 42% last year. However, only 15% supported fuel tax rises to curb vehicle use, and less than 10% were in favour of raising car parking charges. Just 18% thought tax should become more punitive on high-emitting cars.
There was a fallback in the number of people who supported voluntarily reducing car use, down from 64% in 2008 to 58% the following year. Measures designed to encourage car sharing were seen as a good thing by 43% of respondents for both 2008 and 2009.
Asked whether they would support changes in patterns of vehicle use for environmental reasons, just 18% of daily car drivers strongly agreed with the idea. The study also found that just 16% of regular car users were very concerned about the environmental impact of vehicle use, compared to 35% for infrequent or non-car users.
