Londoners were most happy with rail and bus services, least happy with parking

We asked about four different aspects of transport. Of these, Londoners were most happy with:

• the provision of rail and bus services (52 per cent happy against 20 per cent unhappy)
• followed by cycle lanes (32 per cent vs 21 per cent)
• and pavements (37 per cent vs 33 per cent)

They were least happy with parking (26 per cent vs 37 per cent).

Over the course of our surveys since 2020, the proportion of Londoners who say they are unhappy with the services we have tracked has increased.

For instance, the proportion of Londoners who are unhappy with rail and bus services increased from 14 per cent when we first asked in January 2021 to 20 per cent two years later in January 2023.

Some Londoners were more likely to express unhappiness with transport in their area than others. For rail and bus services, women were more likely than men to say they were unhappy with the quality of services (23 per cent vs 18 per cent).

People with children under 18 were more likely to express dissatisfaction with rail and bus services than those without children under 18 (24 per cent vs 18 per cent).

People who worked temporary, freelance or zero-hours contracts were more likely than those with full-time or part-time contracts to say they were unhappy with cycle routes in their area (30 per cent, 19 per cent and 18 per cent respectively).

Women were more likely than men to say they were unhappy with parking in their area (40 per cent vs 34 per cent). People who live in outer London were more likely than those in inner London to say they were unhappy with parking (40 per cent vs 32 per cent).

Older people were more likely than younger people to say they were unhappy with the pavements in their area, while people with a disability were considerably more likely than those without a disability to express dissatisfaction with the pavements in their area (39 per cent vs 31 per cent).

Air quality worries almost all Londoners

Almost all Londoners worry about air quality and the impact of climate change at least occasionally, while around two fifths worry about either regularly or very regularly.

The proportion of Londoners who worry about air quality and the impact of climate change in London and in their area has fallen over the last two years.

Londoners support tougher rules on industries to reduce air pollution

The most popular measure to reduce air pollution amongst Londoners was to introduce tougher rules on industries, with a third of the Londoners (32 per cent) supporting this measure.

The least popular measure was to increase the charges for the ULEZ non-compliant vehicles, with just 12 per cent of Londoners supporting this measure.

More Londoners support than oppose road user charging

Some people think we should replace road tax, the congestion charge and the ULEZ charge with pay-per-mile road user charging. Past Centre for London research has made the case for this, and it’s since been endorsed by the Mayor of London.

We asked Londoners how far they would support or oppose this change. We found that more Londoners support replacing road tax, the congestion charge and the ULEZ charge with pay-per-mile road user charging than oppose it (41 per cent vs 25 per cent) with a quarter of people (24 per cent) neither supporting nor opposing.

People who drive a car they own at least once a week were less likely than people who use a bike, e-bike, electric scooter, or hired car once a week to support a pay-per-mile road user charge and more likely to oppose it.

We saw other differences in Londoners’ support for road user charging, including:

• Men were more likely than women to support the proposed change (47 per cent vs 36 per cent),
• Younger people were more likely than older people to do so (47 per cent of people aged 16-34 vs 36 per cent of people aged 55+), and
• People with a child under 18 were more likely than those without to support pay-per-mile road user charging (46 per cent vs 39 per cent).