The latest Department for Transport national travel attitudes survey has revealed a cementing of support for efforts to boost air quality in cities by limiting car traffic.
The survey of more than 1,300 people found a majority of 62% supported low emissions zones with almost one in five strongly in favour, while 67% said low emissions zones improve public health.
These sentiments may be in part founded on the 49% of people who are concerned about air quality in their immediate area and supported by the 68% who see congestion in urban areas as a problem.
However as previous surveys have shown in recent years, the crux of the issue when it comes to reducing car journeys could be encouraging people to actually make the shift to public or active travel.
This latest survey found two-thirds (66%) of respondents reported that they find it easy to access shops using public transport; however opinions were split on the ease of access via public transport for visiting friends or relatives, and visiting the hospital.
One third of respondents (33%) said it is easy to travel to work using public transport in their area, compared to 29% who find it difficult.
Over one third of respondents (38%) said they do not use public transport at all as part of their commute, while 43% of rural respondents use private modes to commute, versus 36% of urban respondents.
The largest factor affecting multi modal travel was whether the respondent lives in an urban or rural area: 65% of respondents who live in urban conurbations are likely to make multi-mode journeys, compared to 50% of respondents living in rural villages, hamlets or isolated dwellings.
In London, 80% of people say they are likely to make multi-mode journeys where it is faster to do so.
The survey also found 70% of respondents agreed with increasing accessibility of public transport even if this increased fares.
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