Car travel remains below pre-Omicron levels despite the return to work and is likely to stay low for the long term, says the AA.

The AA believes car travel will eventually stick at 10% below pre-pandemic levels or even less

Official Department for Transport (DfT) figures released yesterday reveal the impact of Omicron on travel patterns. While car use had returned to above 90% before the new strain emerged, it hovered between 85% and 88% on Monday and last week.

Meanwhile, rail travel is struggling to get close to 60% of its pre-pandemic level and bus travel still more than 25% below normal levels.

“It is beginning to look like car travel will settle close to 10% below pre-pandemic levels, almost its own version of long Covid,” said Jack Cousens, the AA’s head of roads policy.

“The continued fall in use of public transport, with many travellers probably opting for their cars instead, suggests that car travel will eventually either stick at 10% below or even less. As more of those commuters and other travellers return to trains and buses, that car travel may decline further.

“With more employers allowing hybrid working, the shape of traffic has changed too with quieter morning and evening rush hours. The car travel legacy of Covid may be that it got drivers into habits that will endure, such as online shopping and often chatting with relatives and friends online instead of going round to their homes.”

Cousens also said that reduced traffic levels should prompt city councils to reconsider congestion-cutting measures such as the workplace parking levy currently being consulted on for Leicester.

“City transport authorities are targeting car drivers with punitive charges and taxes, they say to cut car use. Scotland aims for a 20% reduction by 2030. With new travel trends suggesting they may already be close to half way there, the case for measures like the workplace parking levy tax on workers is considerably weakened. Bristol and Reading have come to see this.”