This article summarises people's experiences of road congestion and their attitudes towards alternative ways of charging for road use. It is based on several recent surveys commissioned by the Department for Transport to better understand public attitudes towards alternative road use charging schemes. The article covers the following: * the type of journeys people make most frequently and the extent to which road congestion is experienced on these journeys; * whether people consider road congestion to be a serious problem that the Government should tackle; * levels of support for the principle of road pricing and the acceptability of road pricing under different conditions; * perceptions of the likely effectiveness, fairness and accuracy of a road pricing system; * views on how the data necessary to enforce any road pricing scheme should be collected and held; * the impact that the introduction of road pricing is likely to have on individual behaviour. This article focuses on the results from a module of questions included in the Office for National Statistics' Omnibus Survey in November 2005 (see Box 1 for further details). These questions were developed following a previous module of questions on attitudes to road pricing which was included in the March 2004 Omnibus Survey to inform the Road Pricing Feasibility Study (RPFS)1 and then repeated in July 2005. * The November 2005 results are not directly comparable with those from the earlier surveys. Results from the two previous surveys are summarised in Annex C. * Although the earlier module provided invaluable data, it was not designed for long-term monitoring of public attitudes to road pricing. The Department therefore commissioned BMRB Social Research to undertake testing work, including cognitive interviews, to inform the development of a set of questions designed to provide the basis for the long-term monitoring of public attitudes at a national level. These questions will next be repeated in October and November 2006. The list of questions is in Annex B; a summary of the report by BMRB can be accessed at Annex D. * The figures in this article relate to Great Britain unless otherwise stated. Where sample sizes are sufficient differences by factors such as sex, age, income and socio-economic status have been examined. The report only focuses on statistically significant differences (significant at the 5% level). More detailed tables are available in Annex A - Tables A.1 to A.26. * Findings from the British Social Attitudes Survey are also presented where appropriate (see Box 2) (Author/publisher)
Samenvatting