Distance travelled per person per year by car and by all modes, 2005-06
The average distance travelled per person per year in Great Britain between 1995-1997 and 2005-2006 increased by 3 per cent to 7,200 miles. The largest regional increase was in Yorkshire and The Humber where the average distance travelled increased by 16 per cent to 7,200 miles. In London the average distance travelled per person fell by 3 per cent to 5,400 miles over the same period.
Four fifths of all distance travelled was by car and other private road vehicle (such as a motorcycle). The distance travelled by this mode is much lower in London than in other regions at 58 per cent in 2005-2006. Elsewhere, this proportion ranges from 79 per cent in Scotland to 90 per cent in Wales.
The average distance travelled per person by car and other private road vehicle in Great Britain remained more or less the same between 1995-1997 and 2005-2006 at 5,900 miles per year. However this masks some changes at regional level. Over this period, the average distance travelled by this mode increased by 17 per cent in Yorkshire and The Humber and fell by 17 per cent in London.
The decline in distance travelled by car in London was accompanied by an increase in public transport mileage of 28 per cent, with the average distance travelled by local bus increasing by 46 per cent to 500 miles per person per year. The largest declines in travel by local bus were seen in the North East (25 per cent) and Yorkshire and The Humber (11 per cent). The average distance travelled by rail in Great Britain increased by just over 40 per cent between 1995-97 to 2005-06, with increases in most regions.
31/07/2009 – Information Notice: Minor amendments have been made to this Transport brief analysis since it was first published on 8 May 2008. Department of Transport felt that the use of short term comparisons of National Travel Survey sample data at regional level could have led to misinterpretations. This has now been re-written to ensure clarity of the information.
Notes:
Travel data from the National Travel Survey (NTS) which is the only comprehensive national source of travel information for Great Britain linking different kinds of travel with the characteristics of travellers and their families. It became a continuous survey from July 1998.
The drawn sample size for the National Travel Survey was nearly trebled in 2002, compared with previous years. At a regional level the data are averaged over a two-year period. Previously data were shown for a three year period because of the smaller sample size.
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