This study showed that people in low income households make 13% fewer journeys and travel 37% less distance than average. They make 29% fewer journeys by car and travel 40% less distance by car. Whilst these households use public transport 50% more than average they do not travel further by these means, as they use buses for short journeys more, but trains for longer journeys less; consequently the distance they travel by public transport is 30% less than for all households. As with the rest of the population, people in low income families travel more be car than any other form of transport. Spending on transport has increased from 8% of all household expenditure in 1957 to 16% today. Low income car owning household however spend much more than their car-less peers, with 15% higher spend on motoring alone - more than the average amount spent by all low income households on all forms of transport. Consequently they spend a higher proportion of their outgoings on motoring than average car owning households. High taxes on road fuels mean that motoring taxes bear more heavily in relation to expenditure for low income car owning households.
Samenvatting