Most Indians and Chinese are taking short, leisurely weekend road-trips to go out and spend quality time with their family. As per the latest Ford Driving Habits Survey, 8 out of 10 Indian and Chinese (83%) have admitted going on a short, recreational trip at least once a month. This is higher than their counter parts in Australia, Philippines and Thailand.
55% of the drivers in both India and China claim to take more than one road-trip every month whereas 28% drivers travel to weekend destinations at least once in every four weeks. This shows that with sizable youth in workforce and increased incomes, both Indians and Chinese are becoming more mobile and are exploring new places more than ever before.
According to the survey, 49% of the respondents in India are spending 12-hours or more every week or more than 100-minutes in their cars every day. The figure is higher than the average in Asia Pacific region where 42% of the respondents claimed that they spent the same amount of time in driving.
This includes a large number of drivers in India (14%) who are devoting up to three-hours behind the steering wheel every day.
As per Ford Driving Habits Survey, majority of respondents cited accident or driving in congested traffic as the most common cause of anxiety. Some other trends for anxiety across drivers in AP region included:
· Hitting an animal caused anxiety among 40% Australians while finding a parking spot stressed 60% Chinese drivers
· While 32% Indians were stressed about hitting a pedestrian, 70% respondents in Philippines are worried about the rising fuel prices
· 46% drivers in Thailand find it taxing to drive at night and 43% to deal with riders on two wheelers
Some of the other interesting findings from Ford Driving Habits Survey also highlighted:
· Drivers across the region are inclined to constructively utilize the long hours spent in commuting and looking for several intuitive features.
Entertainment focused features are the most sought after fitments in vehicles with 70% respondents in India calling it as their favourite in-car feature
· Nearly a fourth also admitted to excessive use of mobile phones to either take selfies or browse social media websites during driving.
The findings of the latest Ford’s annual Driving Habit survey are based on responses from nearly 2000 men and women in the prominent APAC locations.
