Sharing the road: Political ideologies and political party preference as drivers of public transport infrastructure support

Urgently needed policy efforts to reduce emissions are often met with divided support, arguably along political lines. While an effective path forward requires shared attitudes and cooperation, political polarization on this issue has been observed in many countries, including the UK.

Using a representative sample of British citizens (N = 2,515), this research is the first to examine if and to what extent political ideologies − specifically welfarism and economic left–right orientation − along with party preference, drive support for various transport infrastructure policy directions: (a) new cycle lanes, (b) improving existing public transport, (c) spaces for electric car charging points, (d) building carparks, (e) widening pavements, and (f) creating pedestrian high streets – individually and as an aggregate scale.

While left-leaning individuals are more likely to support the listed transport initiatives both in aggregate and individually, this research is the first to show that welfarist political ideology plays the most significant role in half of the cases and ranks second only to political party preference in the other half. This highly significant positive relationship between welfarism and these transport initiatives is moderated – and strengthened − by both high interest in politics and high degree of closeness to a political party.