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5. How drivers make particular types of journey, and how easy it would be to change to a different method: drivers (17+)
5.1 These questions are asked only of drivers ( i.e. randomly-chosen adults who said that they had a full driving licence, and that they drove nowadays), in a randomly-chosen half of the sample with effect from the start of 2005. The results given here have therefore been produced using the data for two years (2005 and 2006) combined, in order to have a more reliable basis for analysis.
5.2 Whether, and if so, how, drivers make particular types of journey
5.2.1 Drivers were asked how they made each of seven different types of journey. The first row of Table 4 shows that 48% of drivers said that they always used a car to shop for small amounts of food, 29% sometimes used a car, 18% never used a car, and 5% never shopped for small amounts of food. For the other types of journey, the percentage who said that they always used a car ranged from 36% (going to the library) to 87% (supermarket shopping), and the percentage who never used a car ranged from 3% (supermarket shopping, visiting friends and relatives) to 23% (trips to the library). As the bases for these percentages include drivers who never made each type of journey (29% for trips to the library; small percentages for other types of journey), the final column of Table 4 gives percentages which count only drivers who made each type of journey. So, as 48% of drivers always used a car to shop for small amounts of food, and 95% of drivers shopped for small amounts of food, just over half (51% - i.e. 48% expressed as a percentage of 95%) of drivers who made that type of journey always used a car. On this basis, for the other types of journey, the percentages (of drivers who made them) who always used a car ranged from 50% (evenings out for leisure purposes) and 51% (going to the library) to 69% (visiting friends or relatives) and 90% (supermarket shopping).
5.2.2 Table 5 provides more detailed analyses of these percentages of drivers who always use a car when making each type of journey. The difference between the sexes are not great. A smaller proportion of 17-29 year olds always used a car than of those aged 40+, for all of the specified types of journey. Drivers who were students in further and higher education were the least likely always to use a car for each type of journey, and those who were permanently sick or disabled were usually the most likely always to use a car (the sample sizes for both groups were small). There was generally not much difference between the income bands in the percentage of drivers who always used a car. Drivers living in remote small towns were usually the least likely always to use a car for most of the types of journey; those living in rural areas were the most likely always to use a car.
5.3 Ease of making particular types of journey without a car
5.3.1 For each of the types of journey for which drivers stated that they always used a car, they were asked how easy or difficult it would be to make that kind of journey without a car. Table 6 shows that 14% of drivers who always used a car for shopping for small amounts of food would find it very easy to use a different method of transport, 36% would find it fairly easy, 20% would find it fairly difficult, and 23% very difficult. Supermarket shopping and visiting friends and relatives were the types of journey that the highest proportion of drivers would find it difficult to make without a car. For these, 35-37% of drivers who always used a car said it would be fairly difficult to use another means of transport, and 39% said it would be very difficult.
5.3.2 Table 7 shows the percentage of drivers who always make particular types of journey by car who said it would be "very easy" or "fairly easy" to use another means of transport. Some of the figures shown are based on very small sample sizes. 49% of those who always use a car when shopping for small amounts of food would find it "very easy" or "fairly easy" to use another means of transport. On the other hand, only 18% of those who always used a car for supermarket shopping, 19% of those who always used a car for visiting friends or relatives, and 22% of those who always used a car for evenings out for leisure purposes would find it "very easy" or "fairly easy" to change to another mode of transport for such journeys.
5.3.3 The differences between the sexes were not great: the percentage saying that it would be easy to change was slightly higher for men for most of the types of journey. The proportion who said they would find it easy to change tended to decrease with age for all types of journey. For example (ignoring the youngest and oldest age groups, as the sample sizes are small), the proportion of drivers who always use a car to go to see a GP, who would find it easy to change to another mode of transport, decreases from 45% of 20-29 year olds, to 25% of 70-79 year olds. No clear patterns are evident in terms of current situation, except that drivers who are permanently sick or disabled are least likely to say it would be "very easy" or "fairly easy" to change to another means of transport for almost all the journey types. Differences between the income bands are not great. For all journey types, drivers residing in rural areas are far less likely to say it would be easy to change to another mode of transport than those in urban areas or small towns. Little difference is shown between those who drive every day, and those who drive less often.
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