Where Are People Most Dependent on Their Cars

Wednesday, 6. October 2010

: Image by Getty Images via @daylife

Transport Secretary, Philip Hammond revealed in a speech that 84% of all journeys made in the UK were made by car. This means that there is little prospect that we will move away from cars and onto public transport in the near future. However, the Campaign for Better Transport has carried out a survey, in which they found that certain towns and cities were more dependent on cars than others. The worst offenders and those most car-dependent were:

1. Milton Keynes

2. Peterborough

3. Luton

4. Sheffield

5. Coventry

The least car dependent was headed up by Nottingham, this is the council that took the lead in wanting to charge companies for parking spaces provided to employees. The list is as follows of the least car-dependent towns and cities:

Nottingham
London
Brighton & Hove
Manchester
Liverpool

Philip Hammond’s suggestion for more workers to work from home in order to save carbon output took a bit of a hit when a study by the Institute of Engineering and Technology pointed out that employees working from home could actually increase the amount of CO2 that they produce. Heating and lighting shared by an office full of people is likely to be more CO2 efficient than heating complete houses if the employee is working from home. They are also more tempted to pop out to shops etc. when this shopping was probably done to and from work. Do you constantly look for ways to reduce your personal carbon footprint? By Graham Hill