Travel in London Travel in London

9. London’s air quality and greenhouse gas emissions and transport and public health
There are, however, variations in the number of minutes spent travelling actively per
day by age. The 25-44 age group have the highest average number of active travel
minutes per day (26.2 minutes in 2014/15) followed by 17-24 year olds (23
minutes), 45-64 year olds (20.3 minutes) and over 65s (15.3 per cent). Most active
travel is in the form of walking, despite recent increases in the numbers of trips
cycled. The proportion of active travel done on foot is lowest among 25-44 year
olds (91 per cent), followed by 45-64 year olds (93 per cent), 17-24 year olds (94
per cent) and is highest among over 65s (97 per cent), reflecting the age profile of
cyclists (figure 9.8).
Figure 9.9
30
Number of minutes spent walking and cycling per person per day, by age
group, 2014/15.
Number of minutes per adult per day
25
20
15
10
5
0
17-24 25-44 45-64 65+
Walk
Cycle
Source: TfL Planning, Strategic Analysis.
Because London’s population is not equally distributed between these age groups,
the total number of minutes spent travelling actively is also not spread evenly.
Figure 9.10 shows the total minutes (in millions per day) spent travelling actively by
all people in each age group from 2008/9 to 2014/15. The largest age group, in
terms of population, is 25-44 years and hence this group has a much larger number
of active travel minutes each day, followed by the 45-64 age group. The group aged
65 and over have the lowest total minutes per day, however as this group is slightly
larger than the 17-24 age group in terms of population, this shows that older
people, on average, spend less time travelling actively per person than the 17-24
age group.
179 Travel in London, Report 8