KEY POINTS:
About one in five people always use public transport to get to work and two in five do so at least sometimes, a survey has found.
The numbers are far higher than those suggested by the Census last year.
The survey of 1098 people by recruitment company Kelly Services first asked people if they had access to public transport and found 72 per cent did.
Overall, a total of about 18 per cent said they always took public transport in preference to a private vehicle, 9 per cent regularly did and 13 per cent sometimes did.
The balance of about 31 per cent said they rarely or never took public transport to work.
Barriers to using public transport included cost, frequency and convenience.
The usage numbers make a lot better reading for public transport than the 2006 Census day data, where only about 4 per cent said they took a public bus or train, compared with the about 63 per cent who drove, or were a passenger in, a car, truck, van or company bus.
Kelly Services also conducted the survey overseas and, of the countries surveyed, it ranked New Zealand 22nd out of 28 for using public transport.
Green Party co-leader and transport spokeswoman Jeanette Fitzsimons said without knowing if the survey canvassed rural and smaller-town residents as well as people in the big cities, it was hard to know if the about 40 per cent of people who said they always, regularly, or sometimes used public transport to get to work was accurate.
"The key is, even if there is public transport, if it's unreliable and it only goes once every hour most people are not going to use it.
"Getting the reliability and the frequency up is an absolute key."
Ms Fitzsimons said the concerns about the cost of public transport often did not take into account the true cost of using a car and not just petrol.
She was heartened by the survey results. "The fact that 40 per cent use it [at least] sometimes shows there's a willingness there to use it if there's a service there that they need."
Asked if the about 4 per cent of people who told the Census they had taken the bus or train that day was a more accurate reflection, Ms Fitzsimons said: "Use of public transport nationwide is low because there's so many places it doesn't get at all and other places where it simply doesn't provide a good enough service.
"That 4 per cent could be increased hugely and that would make a big difference to the congestion on the roads."
The Campaign for Better Transport, which wants improved transport in Auckland, especially extending and electrifying train lines to encourage Aucklanders out of their cars, also believed the numbers in the survey using public transport were too high.
"We've always been told from the Auckland Regional Transport Authority that it's somewhere around the 10 per cent mark," convenor Cameron Pitches said.
Mr Pitches said one major way to encourage public transport use was a system where people paid for one ticket and could use any type and amount of public transport on any given day.
The survey found Indonesians were the biggest public transport users in the world - 93 per cent of them travelled to work by public transport, followed by Hong Kong (88 per cent) and Singapore (86 per cent).
At the other end of the scale, just 29 per cent of workers in Turkey regularly went to work by public transport, 34 per cent in the United States and 36 per cent in Puerto Rico.
Commuter Key
Do you use public transport in preference to a motor vehicle?
* Don't have the choice of taking public transport: 28 per cent.
* Yes all the time: 18 per cent
* Yes, regularly: 9 per cent
* Yes, sometimes: 13 per cent
* Rarely: 12 per cent
* No, never: 20 per cent
TOTAL: 100 per cent
What single factor would encourage you to use public transport more often (of the people who have the choice to use public transport)?
* Improved comfort: 3 per cent
* Improved safety/security: 3 per cent
* Lower prices: 25 per cent
* More convenient access: 27 per cent
* More frequent services: 27 per cent
* N/A: 15 per cent
TOTAL: 100 per cent
- NZPA
