THE Government's push to get more people onto buses and trains has hit a speed bump.

Motorists are not giving up their cars, going by data from the 2008 Household Interview Travel Survey.

In fact, public transport's share of the total number of trips made during the morning peak period shrank to 59 per cent last year from 63 per cent in 2004 and 67 per cent in 1997.

The stark and persistent retreat is because of a substantial rise in the number of cars on the road, and also because they are being used more frequently.

Transport Minister Raymond Lim, who last year set the target of raising public transport's share of trips to 70 per cent by 2020, released the data on Monday at the 2nd World Roads Conference.

He noted that while public transport journeys increased by 16 per cent, car journeys jumped 31 per cent.

Additional reporting by Maria Almenoar

christan@sph.com.sg

Read the full story in Tuesday's edition of The Straits Times.