Useful transport facts

• Between 1999 and 2001, 61 per cent of all journeys between one and two miles were made by car
• Overall levels of car traffic have increased tenfold since 1955
• Traffic delays costs the country £20 billion per year
• A quarter of all main roads are jammed for an hour a day
• If half of UK motorists car-shared one day a week pollution would be reduced by 10 per cent and traffic jams by 20 per cent
• Depreciation of the car is the motorist's most expensive cost
• 20 per cent of all car journeys could be avoided if other means of transport were used more readily
• Health professionals estimate that 24,000 people a year in the UK are dying prematurely as a result of vehicle emissions
• 90 per cent of badly polluting vehicles can be retuned within 15 minutes

Public transport

• Ninety per cent of people in England live less than a 13-minute walk to a bus stop
• Public transport is nearly 10 times safer than the car

Cycling

• Regular cycling will give you a fitness level equivalent to being 10 years younger
• In-car air can be three times more toxic than air breathed by cyclists or walkers. Cars travel in the middle of the road where pollution is most concentrated