Ipsos Our Changing Travel Report for DfT
Earlier this month the DfT published an Ipsos report it had commissioned, Our Changing Travel. The report contains the results of research into public attitudes to travel following the pandemic.
One finding that stands out relates to travelling more sustainably. Ipsos found that people won’t change their behaviour until sustainable travel becomes cheaper than current options.
The four main questions addressed by Ipsos are:
- How and why are people changing how they travel?
- People’s plans in relation to working from home.
- Why are/aren’t people returning to public transport?
- What are people’s attitudes and behaviours relating to sustainable travel?
The report is based on interviews and focus groups with 2,345 adults in November 2022 and February 2023. These post-pandemic results are compared against those of previous studies before and during the pandemic (2020-22).
1) Transport Modes
The table below shows how people said they travelled post-pandemic (November 2022), compared to pre-pandemic (January-March 2020).
| Post-pandemic (November 2022) | Pre-pandemic (January-March 2020) |
| Bus 48% | Bus 63% |
| Train 43% | Train 63% |
| Tube 29% | Tube 44% |
| Walk 68% | Walk 79% |
| Cycle 26% | Cycle 31% |
| Drive 71% | Drive 71% |
| Car passenger 77% | Car passenger 80% |
| Car pool 21% | Car pool 15% |
In my view these results should be taken with a pinch of salt.
First, it is quite a small sample of people interviewed. Second, the results are based on what participants told the polling company, not empirical evidence of how people actually travelled.
Third, it seems quite unlikely that there really has been an 11% drop in walking after the pandemic, especially when in other parts of the report participants report walking more in order to save money.
Fourth, the Ipsos report shows that cycling is down, but this contradicts other evidence. DfT statistics show that cycling is down on the pandemic peak, but up on pre-pandemic levels.
Ipsos did find that frequent travel by cycle was up on the pre-pandemic period.
Fifth, if car pooling is up you might expect the percentage of people travelling as car passengers to be up – but the Ipsos figures show it as down.
2) Commuting
The proportion of people commuting at least sometimes is steady, but fewer people commute 5 days a week. The figures are:
- 78% of employed people commuting at least once a week vs 82% pre-pandemic, but
- 32% of employed people commuting 5 days a week vs 47% pre-pandemic
In-depth interviews found that ‘participants had settled into new working and commuting patterns with little motivation to increase how frequently they travelled to workplaces…’
3) Barriers to Using Public Transport
By November 2022, 30% were worried about catching Covid on public transport, down from 46% a year earlier.
The main things that would encourage more people to use public transport are:
- financial incentives
- more frequent and punctual services
- simpler ticketing structure
4) Cost of Living
35% of respondents said they were finding it difficult to cope financially on their household’s income. Some of these people had changed how they travelled in the last 3 months with:
- 57% walking more and
- 46% reducing the number of trips they made
5) Sustainability
Some people were willing to change how they travelled for climate change reasons. The proportions were:
- 53% would be happy to walk or cycle more (down from 57% in November 2021)
- 42% would be prepared to use their cars less
- 37% would take fewer flights (down from 42% in November 2021)
Ipsos say that news about the environment has not had much of an effect on people’s thinking about how they travel.
‘The feeling was that there would be little or no change in people’s behaviour until travelling in a more sustainable way becomes cheaper than current options.’
para 1.5 of the ipsos our changing travel report
Convenience, comfort and cost, underpinned by habit, are the most important factors influencing travel decisions (p49 of the report).
One of the barriers to active travel was ‘a sense that there was insufficient infrastructure and a range of safety concerns associated with walking and cycling.’
The report also notes (p50) that other research by Ipsos has found that the public support pro-sustainability policies when they are outlined initially, but support falls dramatically when people are presented with possible lifestyle and financial cost implications for them personally.’
Further:
‘Participants across focus groups and in-depth interviews shared a view that while they were willing to make changes beneficial for the environment that did not impact on cost or convenience, responsibility for behaviour change across society did not lie with individuals. Instead they felt that bolder moves from government and the private sector would signal that travelling more sustainably was a more urgent and serious priority. Until the financial benefits of travelling more sustainably outweighed those offered by travelling in other ways, it was thought to be unlikely that decisions made about travelling would change.’
p50 of the ipsos report