The frustration is all too familiar to visitors and locals alike.

It is a beautiful day in the Lake District, you can see the fell tops bathed in sunlight and bordered by blue skies - but you are stuck in a traffic jam en route from Windermere to Ambleside, spending too much time behind the wheel and not enough in the hills.

In July 2012, Cumbria Tourism put nearly £7million of Government funding to work to try and promote and co-ordinate bus, bike, boat and foot routes in the region and make this scene a less common occurrence.

Now figures from the organisation show that since the ‘See More’ programme came into being, there has been a 15 per cent reduction in car use by visitors.

“The figures are encouraging as they show real indications that people are considering different ways to travel around the Lake District,” says Nicola Parker, programme manager for the See More programme.

“In rural areas, one of the main increases has been around walking, which is something that can be replicated anywhere.”

One of the most eyecatching parts of the campaign has been the Twizy electric cars - which are becoming an increasingly common sight zipping around the region’s lanes and passes.

The Quiet Site campsite, which overlooks Ullswater, is one of nine locations where the Twizys can be hired.

Warden Adam Tamea says they have already proved popular, even though the site had only been hiring out the cars for a few weeks.

“I think they have been out six or seven times in the last four weeks, I think in the summer it will explode,” says Tamea.

“There are a few different things that people like about them. For some people it is the fun element and it is something new, but others have used it for convenience because some people come in big motor homes and they can’t really take them down the little lanes. If they want to pop out the Twizys are handy for that.”

The Lakes Aquarium, at Lakeside on Windermere’s west shore, can be reached by some of the most picturesque methods of public transport, with Windermere Lake Cruises running services from Bowness to its doors.

Marketing manager Susan Milby says although she estimated that 80 per cent of visitors coming from Bowness would opt to use the steamers, there were fewer alternatives for those coming from elsewhere.

“It’s a big proportion of people that come on the boat and many of them are tourists who are staying in Bowness,” she says, “but for the far outreaching areas a car is often necessary to get here.”

One business that has seen increased numbers of customers coming by bus is Honister Slate Mine, where part of the attraction is its remote location high above Borrowdale and Buttermere.

Jan Wilkinson, one of the family owners, says the business has made a concerted effort to work with Stagecoach to adapt the timetable of its Honister Rambler Service to fit with the schedule of its mine and via ferrata tours.

Last year Cumbria Tourism and Honister worked with Stagecoach to add an extra bus early in the morning and later at night specifically to ferry tourists to Honister.

“We work together with Stagecoach on the timetable and pro-actively encourage people to leave their cars in the main hub because they can hop on and hop off the Rambler when they want to,” says Wilkinson.

However, she said although getting to the attraction by bus from Keswick was relatively easy, coming from the South Lakes required more complex and time consuming series of changes.

There should also be more work done by tourist attractions and bus companies to make it easier for passengers to buy tickets and find out where to park, she says.

“What happens in my opinion is that it isn’t always user friendly when they are booking tickets,” she says.

“The consumer could actually have it a lot easier. They need to know how far their car is from the bus stop and what times they go and where they can go and get something to drink or eat nearby.

“I think the providers and the bus companies need to communicate and make sure they feedback what their clients are saying.”

The days of a traffic-jam free Lake District may be some way off, but perhaps they are getting closer.