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)
Figure 11.11
Time spent travelling per day as car driver – London residents.
25
Minutes travelling as car driver per person per day
20
15
10
5
0
2005/06 2006/07 2007/08 2008/09 2009/10 2010/11 2011/12 2012/13 2013/14 2014/15
Greater London Inner London Outer London
Linear (Greater London) Linear (Inner London) Linear (Outer London)
Source: TfL Planning, Strategic Analysis.
Summary
For London residents the trends in car driver trips, distance travelled as a car driver
and time spent travelling as a car driver have all been downward over the 10 year
period covered by LTDS. This is consistent with the ‘peak car’ hypothesis that
proposes per capita car travel has begun a decline from a peak. Increasing
densification in London, and the response to this of more public transport
provision, has contributed to the trend.
The trend observed over this ten-year period does not, however, guarantee that the
future will continue to develop in exactly the same way. In particular, the
occurrence of the recession in 2008 and a longer-term lack of growth in real
household incomes in outer London dating from before LTDS began, have both
meant there was little upward pressure on car use in London. A return to stronger
economic growth or increases in outer London incomes in the coming years could
still see the recent trend of reducing per capita car use slow down or even reverse
again.
Travel in London, Report 8 215