Is the New Deal for Transport Really Better for Everyone? The Social Policy Implications of the UK 1998 White Paper on Transport

The authors examine, from a social policy perspective, the UK government's 1998 transport White Paper, which aims to reduce the environmental and social costs of growing traffic congestion and pollution. Data from the British Social Attitudes Survey are used to analyse the implications of the government's new transport policy for the relative welfare of different social and demographic groups. The results suggest that car dependency, which the government is hoping to tackle, is widespread and is particularly strong among men, people with higher incomes, those aged between 25 and 59 years, people with children, the nonmanual social classes, and those living in rural areas. These classes and groups share most of the responsibility for the negative impacts of motor transport, and are often the least concerned about them. They are also the people most opposed to the idea of government intervention to ameliorate the problems.