LIFE IN THE SLOW LANE
A SURVEY FROM THE DEPARTMENT FOR TRANSPORT SHOWS HOW JUST MUCH TIME WE WASTE GETTING FROM PLACE TO PLACE EACH YEAR
THE average person in Britain spends the equivalent of nine days a year in the car, new figures have revealed.
The annual National Travel Survey by the Department for Transport has laid bare the number of hours we spend getting from place to place every year.
On average, we spent a total of 377 hours per person travelling in 2017, including by cars and vans, public transport, walking, and taxis.
It means each of us spent nearly 16 days a year on travel alone - a figure that could easily add up to several years over a lifetime.
More than half of that - 216 hours, or 57% of the total - was spent in a car or van, either as a driver (140 hours) or a passenger (76 hours).
In comparison, we spent roughly a third of that time using public transport (75 hours) - including 35 hours on buses, 28 hours on surface rail, and nine hours on the London Underground.
We spent a further 70 hours walking, seven hours on bikes and three hours in taxis and minicabs.
Men typically spend more time travelling than women, spending an average of 387 hours getting from place to place in 2017 compared to women’s 368 hours.
While men spent more of their time travelling for work or business than women, women were more likely than men to be ferrying kids around, either to school or other activities.
There’s also something of an age gap when it comes to our travel, with the oldest and youngest amongst us spending the least time getting about.
People aged 70 and over typically spent 285 hours travelling in 2017, while 0-16 year olds travelled for 291 hours on average.
Those aged between 40 and
49 spent the longest time travelling - 448 hours, or nearly seven days more a year than those aged 70 and up.
The good news is we’re spending less time getting around now than we used In 2002, the average amount of time spent travelling came to 390 hours a year on average - an extra half a day compared to 2017. That might come as a surprise to anyone who’s been stuck in commuter traffic recently, but it’s likely due to improvements in the speed of public transport, such as trams.