No alternative for the car say school run parents

As 9.5 million children prepare to go back to school this week, swiftcover.com, the UK’s first and only 100% online insurer, reveals that a staggering 4.5 million drivers take their children to school by car at least once or twice a week, with 3 million doing it daily.

On average, mums drive their children to school three days a week, with dads driving the kids to school twice a week.

However, despite drives to encourage more parents to ditch their cars for public transport, walking or cycling, the ‘Public Transport Map of the UK’ study, produced for swiftcover.com by cebr, shows that less than 10% of parents believe it would be possible to use public transport for the school run instead of their cars.

Although the average length of the journey to school is less than four miles, nearly 90% of drivers say they couldn’t make the journey by public transport even if they wanted to.

Men are less able to give up their car for the school run than women, with 95% of men saying they couldn’t substitute public transport for the car compared to 90% of women.

Understandably, a far higher proportion of parents in North Scotland (one in five) drives their children to school by car at least once a week, - nearly double the number of drivers in London and East Anglia. However, despite the Capital’s wealth of public transport options, one in ten drivers still opts to do the school run at least once a week.

The findings of the ‘Transport Map of the UK’ report also reveal that drivers choose their cars over public transport when it’s available primarily because of their creature comforts. Three in four drivers overall say they’re simply more comfortable travelling in their cars then the bus or train, and 60% feel safer in their car than on public transport.

Andrew Blowers, Chief Executive Officer of swiftcover.com, commented: “It’s understandable that parents take the travel option that’s quickest and easiest for getting their children to school on time, but it’s shocking that so many parents have no alternative to the car. Our research shows that people travel an average of four miles to get to school each day and for most parents the only way to make this journey is by car. If the government wants to reduce congestion in urban areas and encourage parents to stop making the school run by car, there needs to increased availability and promotion of the public transport alternatives.”