Press Notices

3 May 2001
New research reveals the reality of rural transport problems

Conventional wisdom about the impact of high car dependence, fuel prices and the availability of public transport can be misleading.

The transport issues facing rural and urban areas are more similar than is often supposed, with both experiencing problems of traffic intrusion, road safety and a history of declining use of buses, walking and cycling. The appropriate solutions, however, may be very different in town and country.

This is the key finding of a new report for the Commission for Integrated Transport as a first step into an inquiry into rural transport problems.

Today's report "Rural Transport : An Overview of Key Issues" has been prepared for CfIT by Dr David Gray, of the Centre for Transport Policy at The Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen.

Key findings

The car

• Around one quarter of all rural journeys are entirely dependent on the car. At the same time, 20% of journeys represent more discretionary use of the car, representing significant opportunities for modal shift in the countryside.
• 84% of rural households have at least one car, compared to 72% of households nationally;
• 73% of journeys carried out by rural households were by car, compared to 61% nationally;
• The proportion of households without a car has been falling slightly faster in rural areas than nationally. However, growth in multiple car ownership has been occurring much more slowly in rural areas.
• The % of households with one or more cars has increased by 14.5% nationally and by 7.7% in rural areas between 1985/6 and 1997/9.

Walking

• Fewer walking journeys are made in rural areas, but the number has been declining more slowly in rural areas than elsewhere.
• Between 1985/86 and 1997/99, the proportion of journeys by foot fell by 21% nationally and by 17% in rural areas;
• The proportion of rural households living within a 13 minute walk of a bus stop with an hourly or better bus services increased from 35% to 42% between 1985/86 and 1997/99.

The bus

• While bus use has been declining in all areas, in rural areas bus mileage fell more slowly than nationally.
• During the same period, average annual bus mileage per person fell by 19% nationally and by 7% in rural areas (albeit from a lower base);

Safety

• Both traffic growth and road deaths are at higher rates on rural roads than elsewhere, despite the perception that the worst problems are in urban areas.
• 20% more people are killed on rural roads than in built-up areas and the rate of causality reduction is falling more slowly here;

Traffic and congestion

• Even with the Government's Ten Year Transport Plan, rural areas will experience the largest % increases in congestion and over 20% traffic growth.

Motoring costs

• The assumption that high fuel prices impact unfairly on rural areas needs to be qualified: a minority of households (especially those on low incomes) are affected and need assistance, but the impact on the rural population overall is not significant.
• Overall households in the least densely populated areas spend 18% of their weekly expenditure on transport - only slightly higher than in more densely populated areas;
• However, rural households in the lowest income quintiles spend almost a third more than equivalent households in high density areas on motoring.

Solutions

• The diverse range of transport issues arising in rural areas demands a more sophisticated approach to implementing policy solutions at national, regional and local level.
• Eight rural transport typologies have been developed to help target rural policy solutions.

CfIT will now commission further research to identify the solutions most likely to succeed in widely differing rural areas across the country.

Notes to Editors:

• Copies of the report are available on the CfIT website at: www.cfit.gov.uk/docs/2001/rural/rural/key/index.htm
• CfIT's Rural Working Group is chaired by Lilli Matson, Head of Transport and Natural Resources at the Council for the Protection of Rural England

Return to: Rural transport: an overview of key issues index