A new survey conducted by Ipsos MORI for the RAC Foundation has found the cost of petrol and diesel to be the public’s highest transport priority for Government action.

Asked to choose from a list which two or three they thought the Government should deal with, 68% identified the price of filling up. This is up from 46% at the same time last year, displacing road/pavement condition as the top priority.

Q1. This list shows a selection of the issues associated with transport. Which two or three do you think should be the highest priority for the Government to deal with? N.B. asked as ‘…after the forthcoming general election?’ in 26 March - 1 April 2010. * N.B. Wording changed from ‘The cost of using a car (e.g. petrol prices)’ in March/April 2010.
	Mar / Apr 2010 %	March 2011 %	Change +/-
The cost of fuel such as petrol and diesel *	46	68	+22
The condition of roads and pavements	58	44	-14
The cost of travelling by train	25	32	+7
The level of congestion on local roads and in towns	24	24	-
Safety for car drivers and other road users	22	22	-
Delays caused by roadworks	19	21	+2
The frequency of local buses	17	17	-
Overcrowding on existing train services	12	15	+3
The damage to the environment caused by transport of all types	18	15	-3
Planning and building a new high speed rail line connecting London and Birmingham and eventually Scotland	3	4	+1
Other	*	1	+1
None of these	*	*	-
Don't know	2	*	-2

• Read the press release from the RAC Foundation

Technical Note

The survey involved 991 face-to-face in-home interviews with a representative sample of British adults aged 16+. Fieldwork took place between 4-10 March 2011. Data have been weighted to be representative of region, age, gender, working status, socio-economic grade, region, ethnicity and car in household.