Guidance

Walking and cycling statistics, England: Background quality report

Published 28 August 2024

Applies to England

The purpose of this document is to provide users of statistics with information on the quality of outputs with respect to different aspects of statistical quality. This report highlights some of the quality aspects of the National Travel Survey (NTS) and the Active Lives Survey (ALS) data used, such as response rates, and quality control measures.

As a result, this document helps to demonstrate how the department complies with the Code of Practice for Statistics. These statistics are published as official statistics.

About walking and cycling statistics

Walking and cycling statistics are estimated by looking at 2 main data sources:

• the National Travel Survey (NTS)
• the Active Lives Survey (ALS)

Together these statistics provide an annual snapshot of the journeys that are walked and cycled in England and the demographics of the people making those journeys.

For more background to these statistics, the surveys, and information on how these statistics are produced please see the national travel survey technical note and the active lives survey methodology page.

Relevance

Relevance is the degree to which a statistical product meets user needs in terms of content and coverage.

The annual walking and cycling statistics include a statistical release and data tables that help provide estimates for the levels of walking and cycling across England and how this has changed over time.

Known users and uses of the statistics

Within the Department for Transport (DfT), the statistics are used:

• for ministerial briefing and to answer public enquiries

• as background to inform policy development

• for monitoring active travel policies

Outside DfT, known users include local authorities, researchers, academics, other government departments, and Parliamentary groups.

Data quality

The walking and cycling statistical release is produced to high professional standards set out in the Code of Practice for Statistics.

The NTS was designated as National Statistics in July 2011; the continued designation was confirmed in September 2018. Results from ALS are published as Official Statistics. This means that both follow the practices set out in the Code of Practice for Statistics.

Timeliness

Walking and cycling statistics are published annually in line with the publication of the NTS statistics. Both the NTS and ALS are collected from surveys run throughout the year. The ALS data covers the period November to November and results are published by Sports England in April of the following year. The NTS data is collected over the calendar year and published the following summer. The time between data collection and publication allows time for the data to be cleaned and validated, after which the data can be prepared, weighted, and analysed to produce the final report.

In most recent years, the statistics for the previous year were published in the summer of the following year (for example, 2023 statistics were published in August 2024).

Accuracy and reliability

Both the NTS and ALS are accurate datasets, produced to a high quality compliant with the code of practice for statistics. Both surveys involve detailed quality assurance processes throughout each production cycle and are conducted by established market research companies. Active Lives surveys are administered and managed by market research company IPSOS and the NTS is conducted by National Centre for Social Research.

Both datasets are designed to provide a representative sample of households in England.

For the ALS, the sample is selected at random using the Postcode Address File (PAF). This enables the selection of a good spread of addresses across local authorities, and only up to 2 adults per household can complete. The survey uses a push-to-web methodology, so respondents without the internet can also complete it via post. Through achieving around 175,000 completes, this enables the collection of more accurate mean values (with larger sample sizes the identification of any outliers is easier, and their effect is diminished). Larger sample sizes also result in smaller margins of error, as it is more likely the sample achieved will be representative of the population at large.

The NTS is based on a stratified, clustered random sample of around 21,800 private households in 2023. This sampling frame is also the PAF, which is a list of all addresses in England. From 2013, the scope of the survey changed to cover England only, and from then onwards, the drawn sample size was around 12,800 households. For 2023, the issued sample size increased to around 21,800 households. Since 2014, interviewers have been assigned to start on different dates across the month to ensure that the interviewing and travel week start dates are evenly spread across the month. This reduces sample bias and means there is more data available for analysis on days of the month that were previously under-represented.

Although both surveys are reasonably comprehensive with high response rates, they can vary across the years which can impact the overall trends and make it difficult to compare trends over time. Where sample sizes are smaller for breakdowns, numbers may be suppressed, and care should be taken when interpreting trends.

Further details can be found in the NTS quality report and the ALS technical report (PDF, 18KB).

Strengths of the data

The annual walking and cycling release is primarily informed by two data sources:

• National Travel Survey (conducted by the Department for Transport)

• Active Lives Survey (conducted by Sports England)

The strengths and limitations of each data source will be outlined in turn.

Further information can be found in the National Travel Survey quality report and the Active Lives Survey technical report.

National Travel Survey (NTS)

Long-term and continuous

The NTS was first run in 1965 and has been running annually since 1988. Few changes to the methodology have been made (with the NTS running in its exact configuration since a revamp of some questions and tables in 2002), enabling long-term trends to be identified and monitored.

Detailed travel pattern data collected

The NTS collects data on who travelled, why, when, and how on a national level. This level of detail allows many useful insights to be made on walking and cycling patterns nationally, locally, and by settlement classification (for example, rural versus urban areas).

Large and representative sample

The sample is carefully designed to represent England’s population, allowing data to be analysed according to demographics such as age, sex, region, and ethnic group. Whilst challenges arising from the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic have impacted the size of the sample, on the whole, the data remains largely representative.

Modal comparison

The NTS travel diary collects data on trips by all modes of transport, allowing for the analysis of walking and cycling patterns compared to other modes of transport (for example, cars or buses).

Inclusivity

As a household survey with a randomly stratified sample, every address in England has a known and calculable chance of being invited to participate in the survey.

Open data

The NTS dataset is freely accessible from the UK Data Service for users who wish to explore micro-level data for themselves.

Active Lives Survey (ALS)

Large representative sample

The ALS is a survey of around 175,000 adults across England and results are weighted to ensure they are representative of the population. The sample aims to achieve a minimum of 500 responses per local authority, with boosted samples in some years for priority areas). This large sample allows detailed analysis, including at the local authority level.

Inclusivity

As a household survey with a randomly stratified sample, every address in England has a known and calculable chance of being invited to participate in the survey.

Continuous data collection

The ALS was started in 2015 and has continued to be collected each year using a consistent methodology, this means that we can start to look at longer-term trends in activity and sports participation habits.

Limitations

National Travel Survey (NTS)

Lower-level geographies:

The NTS is not designed to produce robust data below the regional level. Whilst it is possible to analyse data for smaller geographies than regions, for example, local authorities, often many years of data need to be combined to obtain a suitable sample size. Analyses of lower-level geographies may also be skewed as the sample is weighted to be representative of England, not local areas.

Difficulties performing multiple demographic breakdowns

Also related to sample size, it is also difficult to obtain a large enough sample size to produce robust analysis for specific groups which require multiple demographic breakdowns, for example commuting walking trips in North East England by women aged 60 and above. This is particularly pronounced with cycling data as only a small number of people in England cycle and a small number of journeys are cycled.

Self-reported data

As with any data reliant on people recording it themselves, there is always room for errors such as inaccurate recall, forgetting to record journeys at all, and wrong estimation of the time or distance of a journey. Validation checks are in place to minimise errors.

Active Lives Survey (ALS)

No modal comparisons

The ALS is collected by Sports England to monitor activity levels throughout England. As such, it has a focus on physical activity and does not contain data on other modes of transport, such as car and bus to allow comparisons.

Self-reported data

As with any data reliant on people recording it themselves, there is always room for errors such as inaccurate recall, forgetting to record journeys at all, and wrong estimation frequency or duration of an activity. Validation checks are in place to minimise errors.

Suppressed data

To ensure the accuracy of walking and cycling estimates, we have chosen to suppress data breakdowns with fewer than 30 respondents. This is particularly important when analysing cycling data, especially when it is broken down by travel purpose and to the local authority level. Our approach aligns with the methodology adopted by Sport England.

Comparability and coherence

Comparability is the degree to which data can be compared over time and domain. Coherence is the degree to which data that are derived from different sources or methods, but refer to the same topic, are similar.

Both surveys are based on a randomly selected sample of households. However, results from the NTS and ALS are not directly comparable due to several methodological differences as demonstrated in Table 1.

Table 1: Differences in NTS and ALS

Survey information	National Travel Survey	Active Lives Survey
Time frame covered	Calendar year	Mid-November to mid-November
Survey method	Interview with household members; seven-day travel diary	Push to web survey
Survey results	Primarily based on the seven-day travel diary	Based on respondents remembering how many days spent walking or cycling in the last 28 days
Participant age	All ages	Aged 16 and over
Years covered	The NTS first ran in 1965 and has been running annually since 1988	Data available from the November 2015 to November 2016 period until present
Sample size	Historically around 6,000 to 7,000 households or 15,000 to 18,000 individual respondents	Around 175,000 adults
Survey frequency	Annual	Annual

The NTS should be used when looking at longer-term trends of data, comparisons against other modes of transport, and considering progress against government active travel policies. The ALS should be used when considering analysis of lower level geographies, such as local authority level, due to its larger sample size.

Further details on the comparability of the NTS and ALS as well as other data sources can be found in the Impact of the pandemic on walking and cycling report.

Sport England publishes their own results from the Active Lives Survey each year in April.

Intensity

The ALS includes questions about the pace of walking and cycling, and the effort that was put into these activities (for example, whether it was enough to make the respondent out of breath). Sport England’s measure of activity uses this data to only include physical activity that is intense enough to contribute to the respondent’s health. DfT walking and cycling estimates do not use the intensity information, which generally makes the proportion of adults walking and cycling slightly different to ALS figures.

Exercise bikes

Sport England use a broader term “Cycling for leisure and sport”, which is similar to DfT’s “cycling for leisure”, but includes the use of exercise bikes, for example, cycling on a machine indoors. Whilst this definition works for measuring physical activity, the DfT estimates do not include this activity.

Other sources

There are also other sources that give an indication of cycling levels in England, including:

• Cycling traffic index, England

• Road traffic estimates in Great Britain

• Daily domestic transport use by mode

Accessibility and clarity

Accessibility is the ease with which users can access the data, also reflecting the format in which the data are available and the availability of supporting information. Clarity refers to the quality and sufficiency of the metadata, illustrations, and accompanying advice.

Accessibility

The outputs are published on the GOV.UK DfT statistics page in accessible formats:

• statistical release is available in HTML format from 2020, previous years have been published as PDFs, which are made accessible for those who use assistive technologies

• data tables are available in ODS file format which can be accessed by using freely available software

Clarity

The statistical releases use plain language, in which technical terms, acronyms, and definitions are defined where appropriate. The main findings are presented using a series of text and charts. Full details of the strengths and weaknesses of the data, as well as full definitions are provided in the release, quality report, and notes and definitions document.

Impact of COVID-19

Various levels of national and local ‘lockdowns’, as well as personal restrictions, were in place during 2020,2021 and early 2022, affecting large portions of the population. Following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, in March 2020 the government introduced public health measures that restricted non-essential travel and in-person contact. This had a significant impact on the travel behaviours of people in England, with the advice to avoid public transport even when some early restrictions were lifted. People were encouraged to walk and cycle throughout the pandemic. More details about the coronavirus restrictions can be found in the timeline of UK coronavirus lockdowns.

Data collection

Since March 2020, NTS data collection has been affected by varying restrictions associated with the COVID-19 pandemic. Following a pause in fieldwork in March and April 2020, the NTS relied upon data collection via ‘push-to-telephone’ with interviews being conducted over the telephone and interviewers completing the travel diary on behalf of respondents. The lower response rate associated with this methodology ultimately impacted the statistical and analytical power of the data for the 2020 survey.

During 2021, data collection was switched to mixed-mode, combining ‘push-to-telephone’ with ‘knock-to-nudge’. This approach improved both the response rate and the impact of non-response bias in 2021, compared to 2020, however, the response rate remained below pre-pandemic levels. More details on the changes made to fieldwork operations in 2020 and 2021, and their impact on the data, can be found in the NTS technical report.

For 2022, a mixed mode approach was used, with knock to nudge and push to telephone being used until April 2023. After April, the survey returned to F2F with a phone back-up (PB) for interviewers to make use of in selected households where COVID-19 was a concern.

Due to changes in the methodology of data collection, changes in travel behaviour and a reduction of data collected during 2020, 2021 and 2022, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, care should be taken when interpreting this data and comparing to other years, due to the small sample sizes. Please see the background documentation for further details of these changes. Whilst the ALS data collected was not impacted by a reduction in sample size during 2020, care should still be taken to consider the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the trends seen.

It should also be noted that the responding sample for the NTS has a different composition in 2022 compared to 2019. In 2022 the NTS had a higher proportion of homeowners, households with higher incomes, and older and more highly educated individuals, than in 2019. This may impact some differences seen in NTS estimates.

For 2023, NTS data collection was conducted fully face-to-face for the first time since 2019.

School closures

Data on travel to school is impacted by changes in travel behaviour as well as school closures due to the coronavirus pandemic. Data for 2020 and 2021, as well as changes from previous years should be interpreted accordingly. More details about the coronavirus restrictions can be found in the timeline of UK government coronavirus lockdowns.

Background information

Further information

Further information about these walking and cycling statistics is available, including the:

• data tables

• technical notes and definitions

• statistical release

Instructions for printing and saving

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You will find your print and save options in your browser’s menu. You may also have other options available on your device. Tablets and mobile device instructions will be specific to the make and model of the device.

How to search

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Contact details

Walking and cycling statistics

Email activetravel.stats@dft.gov.uk

Media enquiries 0300 7777 878

To hear more about DfT statistical publications as they are released, follow us on X at DfTstats.