UK workers have longest European commuting times: survey

The RAC Foundation has called upon the government to take a fresh look at commuting from the perspective of the commuter after its research revealed that UK workers spend the most time commuting compared to their continental counterparts.

According to the report, the UK has the longest commuting time in Europe at 45 minutes per day – which is almost twice as long a jounrey as the Italians. In the last decade commuting passenger miles have increased 6% - with the average distance travelled up 17% to 8.5 miles, according to the report.

The RAC Foundation survey also found that only 5% of commuting is by national rail – but these journeys account for 46% of rail with more than half of these journeys made in London and the southeast.

Following the publication, a joint RAC Foundation/Railway Forum conference today heard that it was "essential" for the government to consider a mixture of measures to ensure that transport and planning policy are integrated.

Edmund King, Executive Director of the RAC Foundation told the conference: "Our research shows that we are a nation of car commuters. We have the longest commute in Europe and even if our commuting time doubled most of us would just shrug and leave more time for the journey.

"Drivers would rather sit in their cars twice as long rather than change jobs, move house or change their work base. However, many commuters would revolt over the prospect of having to pay workplace-parking levies."

The RAC's research is based on information from the census, the Labour Force Survey, and the National Travel Survey as well as information from the annual RAC Report on Motoring and the previous Lex Reports on Motoring.

(GMcG)