One In Five Travellers Are Going The Wrong Way

New data from transportdirect.info – the Government’s travel planning website and Britain’s most comprehensive travel information and journey planning service – shows that at least one in five people are going the wrong way on familiar journeys.

Once they use transportdirect.info and discover alternative routes or modes of transport 20 per cent of people change their familiar route. One in six people ditch their car for the benefits of public transport and twenty per cent of people change the time they travel.

Nick Illsley, Chief Executive of transportdirect.info said, “Millions of wise travellers use our service ever year either directly or through our partners. However millions more are missing out on faster, cheaper and more enjoyable journeys throughout Great Britain by not using transportdirect.info. On the commute alone this could mean that nearly six million workers are spending a total of 800 million hours each year going the wrong way. They are needlessly travelling longer or less comfortably than needed on their journey to and from work, often the most stressful part of the working day.”

transportdirect.info is a free, transport neutral, one-stop Internet portal connecting people to places by providing up-to-the-minute, comprehensive information about travel options, ticket prices and timings for any journey in Britain. Entire journeys can be planned online from door-to-door nationwide by bus, coach, train, domestic plane, ferry, taxi, tube, tram, metro, car and foot – or any combination of these.

The site also offers live travel information with the latest information on roadworks and delays, advice on the cheapest rail fares, maps for detailed location and traffic information and a car park finder.

The site recognises 30 million addresses, postcodes, places, public transport locations, amenities and attractions from Lands End to John O’ Groats totalling over 1 trillion origin and destination pairings.
There are over 2,500 train stations and 330,000 bus stops in the system, each with a unique name and number and located to within 1 metre’s accuracy.

Professor Glenn Lyons of the Centre for Transport & Society at the University of the West of England said, “People spend a lot of time travelling -about an hour a day overall. It’s a part of our lives that people should be trying to get the most out of. Many people have entered a travel rut as their route choices are merely down to the force of habit. It’s worthwhile experimenting once in a while – which can be assisted by journey planning with transportdirect.info – to discover new alternatives for familiar journeys.”

He continued, “Planning a journey can materially affect the experience of the trip you then have. People can use transportdirect.info to effectively plan journeys throughout Great Britain, improving their mobility and making their travel time less stressful, more productive, more enjoyable, faster and more cost effective.”

26 February 2009