Titled “The Car and the Commute”, the report shows that reliance is greatest in Wales, where 74.2% of employed people aged 16-74 use a car or van.

After Wales comes the East Midlands (71.7%) and then the West Midlands (71.1%). The full regional split is in the table below.

Even in London 29.8% of working residents commute by car or van ahead of the underground (22.6%), buses (14%) and trains (13.3%).

The average length of a commuter trip by car/van varies little across English regions and Wales at about ten miles. It is highest in the South East (11.2 miles) and lowest in London (8.6 miles).

While almost three-quarters (73.4%) of rural workers in England and Wales now journey to work by car or van, these methods of travel also dominate the commute in urban areas (outside of London) with 67.1% of people either driving themselves or catching a lift.

The report takes journey to work data from the 2011 Census and compares it to land use information to give a detailed picture of car dependency across England and Wales. It also uses National Travel Survey data.

Professor Stephen Glaister, director of the RAC Foundation, said: ‘The Coalition Government has rightly prioritised efforts to get the nation working, but Westminster politicians must remember how the nation actually travels to work. People are still driving despite a decade in which the cost of running a car has outstripped wage inflation. The reason for this is that most people have no practical choice.

‘800,000 of the poorest car-owning households already spend more than a quarter of their disposable income on buying and running a vehicle. The danger is that people will be put off from taking up employment because they just can't afford the commute.

‘Transport poverty is a real threat to the economy and there needs to be renewed justification from ministers as to why such an essential product as road fuel is taxed at 60%.’