Transport is about more than investment in roads and railways, it's also a lifestyle issue says Craig Hoy.

Britain may have some of the safest roads in Europe; but it also has some of the slowest. No longer a nation of shopkeepers we have become a nation of drivers - increasingly angry drivers.

Congestion is a growing problem which, with predictions of car ownership and annual per capita miles covered set to grow, presents an acute problem for a government hesitant to punish the motorist. Congestion charge is a bold response, but it covers a small part of the Capital and is years - if not decades - away from any national roll-out.

It would be wrong to suggest that Europe has no problems on its roads and railways. But its problems are of a different sort and magnitude.Comparisons between Britain and Europe can always be skewed by a series of social factors - where we live, how we live, where we work, the way we play - but headline facts are revealing in themselves.

Whilst Britain still tops the league in terms of road safety - with approximately 50 per cent fewer road deaths per mile than countries such as Belgium and France - we are still eclipsed on almost all other criteria.

Data reveals we spend the longest times commuting to and from work than anywhere else in the EU: a fact which highlights the need for the mixed economy, urban renaissance so often extolled by John Prescott. In this sense, commuting times aren't a transport problem, they are a lifestyle problem.

In the South East it is not unheard of to find workers travelling from Cambridge, Oxford - and even York - to work in the Capital. Work and home are disconnected -sometimes with hundreds of miles between the two.

But Italy - where journey-to-work times are lowest - is a country largely comprised of small and medium sized conurbations where work and play happily coexist.

So an early conclusion for those seeking to change the nature of Britain's transport chaos actually lies outside the sphere of road and railways altogether - it's a an "urban regeneration thing" which will only be made more difficult if car transport and bus and rail fares are reduced on the back of increased subsidy.

But the paradox of Britain's public transport problems in relation to Europe is that we pay more to travel less. Government after government has pursued a "motorist friendly" policy whilst allowing the railways to wither on the vine.

The facts remain quite startling. For a country half the size of France, we rarely let the train take the strain. Britons are 50 per cent less likely to make a train journey than the average French citizen. There is one surface railway station for every 24,000 Britons - compared to a ratio of one to 13,400 in Germany.

Only the travellers of Greece and the Netherlands are less likely to utilise the railways.

And at a time when low-cost operators are luring people off the railways and onto planes - compare air and rail journey times (and costs) between London and Blackpool on the Sunday of Conservative Party conference - it is the opposite in some other European countries.German rail operator Deutche Bahn, which extends through Austria and into Central Europe, has cut nearly an hour of its journey time between Munich and Hamburg.

But the central element of the success of the railways is investment - coupled with year-on-year subsidies. And whilst Britain is good at the latter: it has a woeful record on the former.

Despite the difference in performance and take-up, British rail subsidies in 2001 were approximately twice those of France and on a par with Italy. Yet capital investment in infrastructure - some £1.8 billion in Germany in 2000 alone - outstrips what Britain puts into its post-privatised network.In terms of overall investment in transport infrastructure Germany outspent Britain by two-thirds in the 1990s - with France spending twice what a succession of chancellors were prepared to fund.

And at the same time state aid for bus transport - still seen as the poor man's transport in most parts of the UK - has also fallen behind.In the rest of Europe, bus investment has remained significantly ahead of the UK. In Austria, nearly 70 per cent of operating costs come through subsidies or grants. Whilst the figure is lower in France - at around 44 per cent - in the UK it languishes at around 30 per cent.

So whilst deregulated UK bus operators offer the lowest operating costs of any in the EU on the basis of cost per kilometre, they charge the highest fares - and it is still viewd as poor man's travel.

So that lack of investment has resulted in the car remaining king for most Britons. And cost is as significant as comfort. A typical journey made by public transport in the UK is 15 per cent higher than in Germany and a staggering 60 per cent greater than in France.

As investment fell over the last 25 years, rail and bus fares for many have outstripped disposable income.

But the figures alone do not tell the whole story. The trains do not always run on time on the Continent. But nowhere else do tempers seem to run so high. Whilst state-owned operators in France, Germany and Italy continually fend off strikes and politically motivated shenanigans of the sorts we rarely see here, things appear generally more stable - and safer.

In safety terms Britain is by no means the worst - but it is not leading the way either. Data released by the European Commission finds Britain ninth out of 15 in terms of the number of fatalities per billion annual passenger kilometres.

But with EU enlargement on the cards questions need to be asked about how sustainable state subsidised rail transport actually is. Germany has a perennial conflict over state aid for loss making lines. The Danes and the Swedes have forced up fares on their less used lines. Privatisation and the severance of infrastructure from operator is under active consideration.

And in countries such as Hungary, which are reliant on railways to connect to their Central European neighbours, the dusty and underpopulated rural routes almost inevitably face the axe as the market imperative slowly begins to dawn.

The stability and growth pact backed by the European Commission requires harsh examination of major budgetary expenditure. Investment in public transport is generally higher in the countries Britain seeks to emulate.

It comes at a cost, however. EU average investment in public transport runs at over 1.1 per cent of GDP - and is significantly higher in France and Germany. But taxes as a percentage of GDP are higher than they are in Britain today. The correlation is clear and would not be lost on any British chancellor seeking re-election.

The great British commuter wants the trains to run on time, the buses to be cleaner, and the roads to be clearer. But if they don't want to pay the price perhaps the alternative may be more palatable. And that, put simply, is to change lifestyle. To pack away suburban comforts and to rethink the way we work and play.

The chancellor lives above the shop and, in future, so too may many more Britons.