FALLING petrol prices are failing to kick-start more car use, according to an AA/Populus survey.
The poll of more than 18,000 AA members, conducted last month, showed that just seven per cent were feeling more relaxed about prices at the pump and using their car more than a year ago.
And as many as 57 per cent said they were still in a car-travel rut and were adopting fuel-saving techniques.
The survey also showed that 18 per cent had replaced their car in the last 12 months with a more fuel-efficient one.
The AA highlighted government figures which showed that petrol sales in March fell to a record low of 1.367 billion litres despite average petrol prices dipping to around 129.5p a litre, which was 10p lower than in March 2013.
AA president Edmund King said: "The fragility of driver and family budgets is clear to see. Years of sky-high petrol and diesel prices have taught drivers how to balance their spending by regulating their car use - even when the financial pressure isn't coming from the pump."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article