Ljubljana - Slovenians still mostly rely on their cars as the main means of transport and do not use public transport mainly because it is more time-consuming, the Statistics Office said ahead of European Mobility Week. Walking and cycling is also quite popular.

According to official statistics, Slovenians did most of their journeys or 67% of them by car last year, went on foot or took a bicycle in 26% of the cases and used public transport in just 3% of the cases.

People driving to work or travelling in a car as passengers did not use public transport because this would be too time-consuming (33% of the cases) or because public transport is not available at that time (36%).

Only 1% of them did not use public transport for fear of infection and virtually nobody was put off by the ticket price.

In 75% of the cases, people used their car to go to work. Most frequently (in 89% of the cases) they left their car on a free parking lot, mostly provided by the company, or in public areas.

Last year, 76% of people aged between 15 and 84 years were mobile on a daily basis. They travelled between 100 metres and 300 kilometres a day on average. In 2017, the share was at 84%.

On a working day, 79% of the people did at least one journey a day, and on the weekend the share was at 69%. 78% of men and 74% of women were mobile.

A quarter of people aged between 15 and 84 did not go anywhere either because they had no reason to go (45%) or because they or their family member were ill (21%), the Statistics Office said.

The European Mobility Week will be held between 16 and 22 September and will conclude with the World Car Free Day.