Accredited official statistics

National Travel Survey 2021: Mode share, journey lengths and public transport use

Published 31 August 2022

Applies to England

About this release

The National Travel Survey (NTS) is a household survey of personal travel by residents of England travelling within Great Britain, from data collected via interviews and a 7-day travel diary, which enables analysis of patterns and trends. This release covers the main findings from these travel behaviours during 2021. The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic from March 2020, has had a substantial impact on travel trends in 2020 and 2021 and has affected the operation of this survey.

Fieldwork for the NTS 2021 survey continued to be impacted by the coronavirus restrictions from March 2020, with data collection combining the approach used in 2020 with interviews being conducted via telephone (push-to-telephone approach) instead of face-to-face, and to increase response rates, doorstep recruitment by trained interviewers with interviews being conducted over the telephone (knock-to-nudge approach).

Response rates to the survey in 2021 were halfway between 2019 levels (14,356 individuals) and 2020 levels (6,239 individuals) with 9,971 individuals participating in the survey, an increase of 60% compared to 2020, but a decrease of 31% compared to 2019. Consequently, caution is needed when interpreting these results for 2020 and 2021 as they are likely to be less representative of residents of England compared to previous years. Please see our technical note for more details.

Mode share of trips

Chart 3: Public, private and active mode share by age band, sex, mobility difficulty and region of residence: England, 2021 (NTS0601), (NTS0709) and (NTS9903)

Children aged 0 to 16 made the highest proportion of trips using active transport modes such as walking and cycling in 2021 with 38%. Those aged 17 to 49 made 32% to 34% of their trips using active modes. Those aged 50 to 69 made the smallest proportion of trips using active modes with 29%. The proportion increased slightly to 32% for those aged 70 and over.

People aged 60 to 69 made the largest share of trips using private transport modes such as car, motorcycle and other private transport with 66%. Those aged 17 to 20 made the smallest proportion of their trips using private modes with 47%, however, this age group made the highest proportion of their trips using public transport modes such as bus, London Underground, rail and taxi or minicab with 21%.

The mode share between active, private and public transport modes was the same for both males and females with 33% active transport modes, 60% private transport modes and 7% public transport modes.

Those with no mobility difficulties made a slightly higher proportion of their trips using active transport modes with 32% compared to 27% for those with a mobility difficulty. However, those with no mobility difficulties made a smaller proportion of their trips using private transport modes with 60% compared to 64% for those with a mobility difficulty, and a smaller proportion of their trips using public transport modes with 7% compared to 9% for those with a mobility difficulty.

People living in London made the highest proportion of trips using active transport modes with 43% and public transport modes with 21%. Residents from the South East of England made the second highest proportion of their trips using active transport modes with 36%. The highest proportion of trips using private transport modes were made by residents of the West Midlands with 71%.

Journey lengths

Chart 4: Mode share of trips by main mode for different trip lengths: England, 2021 (NTS0308)

Most trips are relatively short. In 2021, 25% of trips were under 1 mile, and 72% under 5 miles. These proportions of short trips are broadly consistent to how they were in 2020 and in 2019, with 25% of trips being under 1 mile and 71% of trips being under 5 miles in 2020 and 24% of trips being under 1 mile, and 68% under 5 miles in 2019.

Walking was the most frequent mode used for short trips: 82% of trips under one mile were walks in 2021, the same proportion as in 2020 and slightly higher than in 2019 where 80% of trips under one mile were walks. For all other distance bands, the car was the most frequent mode of travel. Nearly all walks recorded in the NTS were under 5 miles in 2021 (99.8%), compared with 61% of car trips, 68% of bus trips and 3% of trips by surface rail. This was similar to proportions in 2020 and 2019 where 99.6% of walks were under 5 miles, compared with 59% car trips, 62% bus trips and 14% rail trips in 2020; and 99.8% of walks were under 5 miles, compared with 58% car trips, 69% bus trips and 8% rail trips in 2019.

Almost three-quarters (73%) of rail trips were 10 miles and over in 2021, higher than in 2020 where 63% of rail trips were 10 miles and over but slightly less than in 2019 where 74% of rail trips were 10 miles and over.

Trends in public transport use

Chart 5: Trips per person per year by selected public transport modes: England, 2002 to 2021 (NTS0303)

All of the selected modes of public transport had shown a sharp decline in trip rates in 2020 which is likely due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Since then, in 2021 trip rates have increased slightly for all of the selected modes of public transport but remain below pre-pandemic (2019) levels. Surface rail trips per person increased from 13 trips per person in 2002 to 21 trips per person in 2019, this then fell to 11 trips person in 2020 and has increased slightly by 5% in 2021 to an average of 11 trips per person, an overall decline of 17%.

Trends in other local bus use (non-London) have shown a gradual fall from 46 trips per person in 2002 to 32 trips per person in 2019, followed by a sharp decrease to 15 trips per person in 2020 and most recently a slight increase to 17 trips per person in 2021, an overall decline of 63% since 2002. Trends in average trips on the London underground and buses in London were relatively stable from 2002 to 2019, an average of 10 and 19 trips per person respectively, however these both fell to 5 and 7 trips per person respectively in 2020 and both have increased since to 8 and 9 trips per person respectively in 2021. Trends on the increase in bus trips are comparable to bus statistics which show an increase in bus passenger journeys in 2021, compared to 2020.

Chart 6: Miles travelled per person per year by selected public transport modes: England, 2002 to 2021 (NTS0303)

Distance travelled for these selected modes of public transport broadly follow the overall trends of these trips, with all four of these modes showing an increase in distance travelled in 2021 compared to 2020. Surface rail has the highest distance travelled on average compared to other public modes, with 296 miles per person on surface rail in 2021, a 32% decrease compared to 436 miles per person in 2002. Miles travelled on average on the London underground have shown a decrease compared to 2002 of 24% from 93 miles per person in 2002 to 71 miles per person in 2021. Miles travelled on average on buses in London and on other local buses have declined by 49% and 53% respectively from 2002 to 2021.

Background information

The 2021 National Travel Survey (NTS) is the latest in a series of household surveys of personal travel by residents of England travelling within Great Britain, from data collected via interviews and a seven-day travel diary. The NTS is part of a continuous survey that began in 1988, following ad-hoc surveys from the 1960s, which enables analysis of patterns and trends.

Some key uses of the data include describing patterns, for example how different groups of people travel, monitoring trends in travel, including sustainable modes; assessing the potential equality impacts of different groups; and contributing to the evaluation of policies.

We always welcome feedback to help ensure that the survey meets the needs of users, and any feedback provided will help inform the future design and development of the survey. If you have any feedback, please email National Travel Survey statistics.

Have your say in influencing future NTS regularly published content through this short user consultation survey!

The NTS statistics team are conducting a review of our publication to better meet users’ needs. This short survey invites NTS users to provide details of how NTS data are used, help us understand whether we can safely discontinue some publication content, and whether other information collected within the NTS questionnaire or travel diary would be useful to have regularly published. The information collected from this survey will form evidence for the discontinuation or the addition of regular published NTS statistics.

Please complete this short survey, which should take around 10 minutes to complete, for your chance to influence future NTS publication content.

National Statistics

These statistics are designated as National Statistics. National Statistics are produced to high professional standards as set out in the Code of Practice for Statistics. The Code of Practice for Statistics plays an essential role in ensuring that statistics published by government inspire the public confidence through demonstrating trustworthiness and providing high-quality statistics. These statistics were designated as National Statistics in July 2011. The continued designation was confirmed in September 2018.

Further information about these statistics is available, including:

• National Travel Survey statistics: data tables
• National Travel Survey statistics: notes and definitions
• National Travel Survey statistics: guidance and quality information
• National Travel Survey statistics: future developments

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Contact details

National Travel Survey statistics

Email national.travelsurvey@dft.gov.uk