Travel in London Travel in London

Overview
Are changing working patterns affecting travel demand?
• Travel related to work (both commuting and on work business) accounts for 28.8
per cent of trips made by Londoners on an average weekday (2014/15), and is
the primary driver of the maximum capacity required by the transport networks.
As population and employment increase, so does the absolute number of workrelated
trips.
• Increasing flexibility of working patterns does however appear to have fed
through to an overall reduction in work-related travel demand over the 10 year
review period on a per capita basis, with an average reduction of 0.4 per cent per
year in commuting trips by an average Londoner. There is no clear trend,
however, for employer’s business trips, the frequency of which has remained
broadly stable at the level of the individual.
• There is also evidence that Londoners are travelling more frequently between
home and a work place other than the one they recognise as their ‘usual
workplace’, which could be another manifestation of more flexible working
patterns.
• Working from home is now broadly equivalent in scale to annual leave as a
reason why those in full-time employment do not make a commuting trip on
any given day.
How is the change in London’s age balance likely to affect travel demand?
• There are clear differences in travel patterns by age group among London
residents. Older residents tend to travel less, make fewer work-related trips and
more trips for leisure and personal business than average, tend to travel
disproportionately at off-peak times, and make more use of cars and buses and
less use of rail-based modes. Younger adults are more likely to travel for
education than work (although the characteristics of both types of trip are not
dissimilar), make more rail-based trips and are much less likely than average to
drive, yet their levels of walking and cycling are not dissimilar to those of the
overall population,
• There have not been substantial changes in these patterns over the 10 years of
available data. This is potentially important in that it suggests that the patterns
are relatively entrenched and may not therefore change radically when looking
forward to the next 10 or 20 years.
• With the number of old people in London’s population set to increase over the
next two decades, disproportionate growth may be expected in the use of the
modes, times and for the purposes most characteristic of these people, with an
emphasis on increased demand for bus and car travel – particularly in outer
London and at off-peak times.
How do Londoners travel at the weekend and how does this differ from working
weekdays?
• London residents make fewer trips on average at the weekend compared with
weekdays (average trip rates of 2.5 for weekdays, 2.4 for Saturdays and 2.0 for
Sundays). This is mainly due to fewer work-related and education trips being
made at the weekend – commuting trips are almost six times higher on
weekdays. This is partly offset by people making more leisure and shopping trips
at the weekend. Eighty per cent of all trips at the weekend are for leisure or
shopping purposes, compared with 45 per cent on weekdays.
18 Travel in London, Report 8