I have to drive everywhere as last October Hampshire County Council withdrew our local bus service along with 7 others in order to save £200,000. Alton is 3.5 miles from us so it is a little too far to walk along a busy main road without pavements in order to catch some form of public transport.
Oh, by the way, I am over 60 and have abus pass but I have to drive to Alton or Basingstoke in order to use it!!!

John Evans, Alton, Hampshire, UK

I have to drive everywhere as last October Hampshire County Council withdrew our local bus service along with 7 others in order to save £200,000. Alton is 3.5 miles from our home so it is a little too far to walk along a busy main road without pavements in order to catch some form of public transport.
Oh and by the way, I am over 60 and have a bus pass but I would have to drive to Alton or Basingstoke to use it!!!

John Evans, Alton, Hampshire, UK

Ok for me and a colleague to get to London from Nottingham wouldcost anything from £90- 200 and £12 for some travel cards when I get there. Or I can drive to Luton and park the car for £3 and get acouple of travel cardsfor about £30. So by using the car including petrol its about £40.
Until the train is viable I'm using the car.
But it gets better! To get from Cornwall to Nottingham by train takes 7-8 hours and cost £90-120 or I can drive in about 5 hours for about £40 of petrol. Or I can get a plane to Manchester and then a train to Nottingham for about £110 and be home in three hours!
Public transport, especially local buses are badly run and over priced, and therefore cannot compare.
Local transport in Nottingham is rarely on time (buses, train and Tram) are dirty and It is cheaper to drive into the city and park. taxing motorists is not going to get people onto public transport - properly run competative pricing will.

J S, Shottingham,

There we have it - yes we do love our cars. So why are we allowing these politicians to penalise us for using them? We need a car friendly party with Jeremy Clarkson as PM perhaps.

Mike Rose, Soham Cambs, UK

I think the government is fully aware of how best to reduce congestion and get more people onto public transport, but chooses not to. The question i ask myself is why doesn't it take the appropriate steps? It certainly takes a massive amount of income from motorists and doesn't return it to improve the roads, which would be one of my answers. To subsidise public transport would be costly also.

I often travel by bus here, which is sometimes ghastly, but the price is the equivalent to 7 pence, so i don't mind. Of course the wages are much lower. Car-ownership is far beyond the reach of many, but the bus routes are extensive and i've never had to wait more than 15 minutes for the next one. In the centre of the city you will often see ten buses waiting in a queue at the main stop, and every one will take on passengers. It can be a daunting experience the first couple of times, but this doesn't quite replace the stress of finding a parking space if you're driving.

Justin, Wuhan, China

If, with our already appalling levels of traffic congestion - itself one of the reasons for bus services being expensive, unreliable and therefore (outside London) poorly used - our car ownership levels are relatively low, heaven help us (as the study warns) if those levels go much higher. Paolo from Rome is right in attributing much of the blame to Thatcher's contempt of anyone trying to help by using public transport. But perhaps Paolo hasn't been in London recently, where Ken Livingstone - despite some odd political stunts - is the only politician actually doing something about the travel problem. His use of congestion charge revenue to put more buses on the road and lessen the congestion they encounter, as well as seeking improved facilities for pedestrians and cyclists, ought to be widely copied elsewhere.

Barry, Wallington, UK

The fact that england has lower levels of car ownership than other
european countries is telling: england has a considerably lower standard
of living, with less disposable income, than most other major european
countries. Quite simply, its poorer. The economy is not booming as
we are so often told; the real economy is in serious recession due to
unfettered free trade, and the only thing keeping the veneer or prosperity
going is the enormous debt built up in the housing market.

sally james, london,

I wonder why the Dutch and Danes cycle so much? The Swiss so little? Duh!

This said, UK is locked in a public transport death spiral thanks to Thatcher &Co. Low levels of public transport subsidy, beginning in the 1980s, mean high ticket prices, poor service and low levels of use for all but unavoidable (read: commuting, too young, too old, banned) public transport journeys.

A succession of governments hasn't been able to equate better public transport with less congestion, and happier, more productive people paying more tax. The closest we (nearly) got was Red Ken's "Fare's fair" before the Eton dunces abolished the GLC. Perhaps Ken will try again?

Paolo Bagarino, Roma, Italia

I'd love to cycle instead of go by car, but most of my possible routes would involve cycling on an A road with no cycle path in company of speeding trucks and cars. You'd have to be nuts to do it. Even madder to permit a child to do it. Holland has cycle lanes which make it possible to cycle safely, and trains which will accept cycles. Our government bleats about green transport but has no idea or plans for how to make it possible for us to travel in any other way than by car.

George Johnson, London,

I'd love to go by train instead of my car but it costs far too much and is dirty, unreliable and uncomfortable. We go to France, Holland and Italy every year and we use their trains which are cheap, clean, reliable and comfortable. This Government has no idea how an effective transport system should work.

David Lewis, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire