National Travel Survey 2010 Reveals a Further Decline in Walking and Cycling


At the end of July 2011 the Department for Transport (DfT) released the results for the 2010 National Travel Survey (NTS). The NTS is an established series of household surveys of personal transport in Great Britain which has been undertaken annually since 1988.

The NTS is used to identify trends in travel behaviour, which helps to drives national policy and provides transport planners with guidance as to likely mode of travel between land uses at given distances apart.

The 2010 results make for disappointing reading for those who attempt to encourage sustainable travel. For example the results for travel mode by distance for journey distances of 0 – 1.6km, show a 2 percentage point decrease in the number of people walking (77.1%) and a 1.7 percentage point increase in the number of people travelling by car (19.9%) compared to the 2009 results.

The number of people cycling (1.2%) has increased but only slightly at less than half a percentage point.

Looking at these results against historic data shows little overall movement since the NTS began, the 1992/94 NTS results showed that for trips under a mile (1.6km) 76.8% of people walked, 1.7% cycled and 20.0% travelled by car. The NTS did show some improvement in the mid 2000’s and by 2004 81.3% walked, 1.7% cycled and just 15.5% travelled by car, but these increases in travel by sustainable modes appear now to have been reversed.

There are also reductions in the walking and cycle mode shares for greater distance journeys: for distances of between 1.6km and 3.2km a 1.6 percentage point decrease to 30.1% was recorded for walking and a 0.4 percentage point decrease to 2.5% was recorded for cycling; for distances between 3.2km and 8km walking is down by 0.4 percentage points to 4.6% although cycling did see a small increase of 0.4 percentage points to 2.2%. In both these distance categories car use increased by 2 percentage points and 0.7 percentage points to 58.5% and 77.3% respectively.

Despite the disappointing results for the number of people walking and cycling, even on short journeys, there were some more positive figures produced by the NTS:

There has been a steady falling trend in trip rates since 1995/97.

In 2010, the average number of trips was 960 trips per person per year – the lowest level since the mid-1970s. There 6,726 miles travelled, and an average trip length of 7.0 miles.

Between 1995/97 and 2010, overall trips rates fell by 12%. Trips by private modes of transport fell by 14% while public transport modes increased by 8%. Although walking trips saw the largest decrease.

Car driver and car passenger trips have fallen by 5% and 11% respectively since 1995/97.

Most of the decline in overall trips rates between 1995/97 and 2010 can be accounted for by a fall in shopping and visiting friends.

Trips by car (as a driver or passenger) accounted for 64% of all trips made and 78% of distance travelled in 2010.

The average number of trips and distance travelled by surface rail has increased overall between 1995/97 and 2010 by 61% and 58% respectively.

Average distance travelled per person per year remained relatively stable until 2007, but has declined slightly over the last three years.

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With the exception of trips by bus in London and surface rail trips there has generally been a reduction in the distances people travel since the 1995/97 survey. On average people walk 21 miles less (179 miles) than they did in 1995/97, cycling has only dropped by 1 mile from 43 miles in 1995/97 to 42 miles in 2010, however this has increased from 36 miles in 2005. Car distance travelled has fallen from an average of 3,623 miles in 1995/97 to 3,416 miles in 2010, with a peak of 3,682 in 2005.

To see the full results of the 2010 NTS visit the DfT website at http://www.dft.gov.uk/statistics/releases/national-travel-survey-2010/ .