Travel in London Travel in London

11. Spotlight: How has travel by Londoners changed – insights from 10 years of the London Travel
Demand Survey (LTDS)
Distance and time spent travelling
Figure 11.4 shows the average distance travelled across all London residents, this
time focusing only on trips wholly within Greater London. The general profile is
similar to that for trip rates, but the changes from year-to-year are less
pronounced, suggesting an element of trip lengthening. Overlaid on the graph (right
hand axis) is the average trip length each year, with the slow increase evident. So,
although people are making fewer trips, on average, the individual trips are tending
to get slightly longer in terms of distance.
Figure 11.4
Average daily travel distance (trips with origin and destination in Greater
London). LTDS average day, seven day week.
10
4.5
Kilometres per person per day
9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
4.0
3.5
3.0
2.5
2.0
1.5
1.0
Average trip length (km)
1
0.5
-
2005/06 2006/07 2007/08 2008/09 2009/10 2010/11 2011/12 2012/13 2013/14 2014/15
-
National Rail Underground/ DLR Bus/tram Taxi/ Other Car driver
Car passenger Motorcycle Cycle Walk Average trip length
Source: TfL Planning, Strategic Analysis.
Looking at average time spent travelling (figure 11.5), there has been a slight
downward trend in recent years, reflecting the rise in non-travel rates. The average
London resident spends around 8 per cent less time travelling per day than in
2005/06. Despite this, the average duration of a trip has remained relatively stable,
with evidence of a slight increase in average trip duration in recent years to 28
minutes per trip. This is consistent with the trend towards longer trips described
above.
Travel in London, Report 8 209