KEY POINTS:
Forget the work commute, it's the weekend escape to the outdoors that has been found to be driving Kiwis' greenhouse gas emissions.
A $2.7 million Opus and Massey University study shows social and recreational trips account for 30 per cent of all private, non-business-owned vehicle kilometres travelled, against
only 25 per cent for commuting.
And most people buy their cars with a view to getting away at weekends - even if they actually use it mainly around town.
Research leader Darren Walton says this combination will make it much harder to cut carbon-dioxide emissions from private transport than in countries where cars are used mainly for commuting.
"All the public transport in the world is not going to address the issue if in the weekend they hop in a four-litre Land Rover and go down to Taupo," he said.
"It may well be that New Zealanders have a unique connection to a particular type of social and recreational activity and that we are going to find it hard to reduce our emissions."
After social and recreational use and commuting, shopping is the next-biggest use of cars, accounting for 12.8 per cent of kilometres travelled.
Only 2 per cent of vehicle kilometres go on getting children to and from school and other educational institutions, partly because most schools are close to home.
The study, which is two years into a five-year Government-funded programme, aims to understand demands for travel as a first step to finding ways to cut carbon dioxide emissions.
Prime Minister Helen Clark has set a goal of "carbon neutrality", meaning that all carbon dioxide emissions should be offset by planting trees or burying carbon underground or at sea.
But Dr Walton said this country's fuel consumption had risen by 3 to 4 per cent a year - about twice as fast as the world average - since Japanese used-car imports were permitted in the early 1990s.
The size of the average engine, weighted by frequency of trips, has also jumped 22 per cent from 1.72 litres in 1990 to 2.11 litres in 2004.
The long-term trend has been a decline in the relative cost of domestic transport from 20 per cent of the average household budget in 1986 to 14 per cent in 2004.
The research has scotched the urban myth that most drivers of big sports utility vehicles (SUVs), which pump out more carbon dioxide than smaller cars, only use them for prestige trips around town.
A survey of 235 SUV drivers and 261 car drivers in Wellington found the SUV motorists were 5.16 times more likely than the car drivers to use their vehicles for off-road trips.
SUV drivers were also more likely to have children and more likely to drive them to school.
"SUV drivers have a strong perception of safety associated with their vehicle and declare they would not feel safe or happy driving a smaller vehicle," the study found.
However, SUV drivers are also slightly more likely than car drivers to take risks such as driving with one hand, following close behind another vehicle and talking on cellphones.
An Auckland survey found that getting people into public transport will have to overcome generally negative attitudes to buses.
"Buses were considered down-market," the researchers said. "The experience involved sitting next to people you did not know, waiting at bus stops, standing in crowded buses, lengthy walking distances to bus stops and destinations, and rudeness and unhelpfulness of bus drivers."
On the other hand, "trains were generally looked upon in a positive light, specifically their ability to take a direct route to a destination and avoid road congestion".
But 10 to 15 per cent of the motorists using "park-and-ride" facilities at three train stations in Auckland and six in Wellington lived within 850 metres of the station, and chose to drive there though they could have walked in 10 to 12 minutes.
"We are providing park-and-rides for people who could walk, but by providing a free carpark we will induce car trips where people might otherwise have walked," Dr Walton said.