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COMMUTERS DITCH CARS RISE IN USE OF PUBLIC TRANSPORT IN LONDON
IAN GRIGGS 16/11/05 METRO CAFE
LONDON IS CHANGING the way it gets to work, according to figures revealed yesterday.
There has been a radical shift towards commuters using public transport, rather than driving to work.
The biggest increase is in the use of buses, statistics from the Department for Transport and Transport reveal.
In 1999 there were 3.5million passengers each weekday on the capital's buses, but in five years this figure has leapt to 6.2million, a dramatic increase of almost 80 per cent.
Use of the night bus rose by 180 per cent in the same period, according to Transport for London figures.
The Tube is also becoming more popular, with 976million passengers in 2004 compared with 764million in 1995.
Many Londoners are choosing the healthy route to work, with cycle journeys nearly doubling since 2000, when there were 59,000 trips per week. In 2004 there were 119,000.
And car use in London's congestion zone has fallen by 15 per cent in just two years.
Friends of the Earth transport spokesman Tony Bosworth welcomed the trend.
'Our ideal would be for people to use cars only when they are the best means of getting somewhere, not when they are the only choice,' he said.
'This is good news. It should encourage other cities to follow London's example and introduce a congestion charge to make them better places to live and work.'
But for workers commuting in outer London, car use is still strong, with four in ten people driving to work.
The AA Motoring Trust said: 'For people in Greater London, the car is still king.'
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