Motorists admit to more than 34 million 'guilt trips' every year

Despite pressure on personal finances and social pressure to cut your carbon footprint, millions of people confess to using their car to make regular short trips of less than one kilometre, according to research conducted by Abbey Credit Cards.

On average the nation's 17 million motorists make two trips of under a kilometre every week and more than 13 per cent of motorists make six or more short trips. Of them, 54 per cent of motorists say they feel guilty for doing so.

However more and more people are trying to cut down on the ‘guilt trips'. Two thirds of motorists say that they have tried to reduce the amount that they use their car to offset rising household bills. Instead they are walking more (49 per cent report that they are replacing short car trips with long walks), or using more public transport. One in five (20 per cent) say that rather incur the cost of a ‘guilt trip' they have just avoided unnecessary journeys altogether.

Callum Gibson, Head of Abbey Credit Cards, commented: "For some the ‘guilt' in the ‘guilt trips' is to do with their carbon footprint, for others, it's about the cost of making those trips. Abbey's new credit card has three per cent cash back on petrol, which can help with at least some of the second type of ‘guilt'."

Despite extensive public transport infrastructure, Londoners are guiltiest of making the highest number of ‘guilt trips' every week - an average of 2.71

Although Londoners have a high dependence on their cars for short trips, they are also most likely to claim they are now using their car less and public transport more

Those living in Wales and the North East are most likely to have reduced their reliance on their car and taken to walking in a bid to save money - 60 per cent of motorists in these areas claim to have walked more