Urban mobility looks different across countries, settlement types and travel modes. In 2023, people travelled 799 billion passenger kilometres in Great Britain, while the average resident of England made 915 trips. In Canada, 18.7% of employed people mostly worked from home in May 2024, and regular commuters averaged 26.4 minutes per journey. Together, these figures show both the scale of movement and the continuing importance of commuting patterns.
Contents
- Great Britain’s travel system
- How often people travel in England
- Commuting modes and journey times in Great Britain
- Urban, rural and London differences
- Canada’s commuting transition
- Canadian metropolitan and mode differences
- Commute duration and long journeys
Great Britain’s travel system
Transport Statistics Great Britain: 2023 Domestic Travel reports 799 billion passenger kilometres travelled in Great Britain during 2023. Road modes accounted for 90% of those passenger kilometres. Cars, vans and taxis alone represented 85%, making private road travel the dominant part of the national mobility system by distance.
The remaining distance was distributed across several modes. Rail accounted for 9% of passenger kilometres, while buses and coaches accounted for 4%. Motorcycles, pedal cycles and air each accounted for 1%. These percentages describe passenger kilometres, so they measure distance travelled by passengers rather than the number of trips or journeys.
Passenger journeys provide a different view of public transport. Public-transport vehicles carried 7 billion passenger journeys in Great Britain in the year ending March 2024. Local buses carried 4 billion of those journeys. The period is a year ending in March rather than the calendar year used for the 2023 passenger-kilometre figures.
The distinction matters when interpreting urban mobility statistics. A mode can account for a large share of distance while having a different share of journeys, because trip length varies substantially between modes. The same source reports that a National Rail commute averaged 64 minutes in 2023, compared with 26 minutes for a car commute and 15 minutes for a walking commute.
How often people travel in England
The National Travel Survey: 2023 measures personal travel by residents of England. Residents made an average of 915 trips across all modes in 2023. This was 6% higher than in 2022, but still 4% below the 2019 level. The comparison therefore shows recovery from the 2022 level without treating 2023 as a return to the earlier baseline.
Walking was a substantial part of everyday travel: people made an average of 263 walking trips per person in England in 2023. Walking trips per person were 5% higher than in 2019. Outside London, bus trip rates increased 8% between 2022 and 2023.
Distance and time also increased in 2023. People in England travelled an average of 5,974 miles, an 11% increase from 2022. Despite that annual rise, the 2023 figure remained 8% below 2019. Residents spent an average of 353 hours travelling during 2023.
These measures cover residents’ personal travel rather than only journeys to work. They include all modes and purposes represented in the survey, so they should not be read as a direct estimate of commuting time. They are useful for placing commuting in a wider travel context: mobility includes walking, local bus use and other trips alongside the daily journey to work.
Commuting modes and journey times in Great Britain
In Great Britain, the average commute to work took 29 minutes in 2023. Journey time varied strongly by mode:
| Usual mode | Average commute in 2023 |
|---|---|
| Walking | 15 minutes |
| Car | 26 minutes |
| Bus or coach | 37 minutes |
| National Rail | 64 minutes |
Car was the usual commuting method for 66% of workers. Walking was usual for 11%, rail—including National Rail, underground, light rail and tram—for 10%, and bus or coach for 7%. These are shares of workers by usual commuting method, not shares of passenger kilometres or total trips.
Geography changes the national picture. In London, car was the usual commuting method for 26% of workers in 2023. The corresponding share was 69% in Scotland and 81% in Wales. The London figure reflects a much more transit-oriented commuting pattern than the figures for Scotland and Wales, although the measures do not by themselves explain the causes of those differences.
The time figures also illustrate why mode shares should be read alongside duration. Walking had the shortest average commute among the listed Great Britain modes, while National Rail had the longest. A mode’s role in urban mobility is therefore not captured by popularity alone: the time burden and the distance represented by each journey matter as well.
Urban, rural and London differences
The NTS 2023 analysis of trips by purpose, age, mode and sex reports pronounced differences between London, other urban areas and rural areas in England. Public transport accounted for 53% of commuting trips by London residents in 2023. Among rural residents, public transport accounted for 5%.
Car use showed the opposite pattern. Cars accounted for 70% of commuting trips by residents of urban areas outside London, compared with 81% of commuting trips by rural residents. The comparison identifies a clear settlement gradient: London had the highest reported public-transport share, rural areas the highest reported car share, and other urban areas sat between those two patterns for the measures provided.
Active modes remained part of each setting. Walking and cycling accounted for about 19% of commuting trips by London residents and about 16% of commuting trips by residents of urban areas outside London in 2023. These percentages are reported as about figures in the source and should not be treated as more precise estimates.
The England figures use commuting trips by residents and distinguish London from urban areas outside London and rural areas. They are not directly interchangeable with the Great Britain figures for workers’ usual commuting method. The different definitions and geographies are why both sets of statistics are useful: one describes trip patterns by area, while the other describes usual worker modes across Great Britain.
Canada’s commuting transition
Statistics Canada’s More Canadians commuting in 2024 reports a large change in working location over the period covered. The share of employed people in Canada mostly working from home was 7.1% in May 2016 and 24.3% in May 2021. By May 2024, the share was 18.7%. The May 2023 to May 2024 change was a decline of 1.4 percentage points.
Among Canadian commuters in May 2024, car, truck or van was the main commuting mode for 81.5%. That share fell 1.1 percentage points from May 2023. The May 2024 figure was 2.7 percentage points below the reported 84.2% record high in May 2022.
Most commuters using a car, truck or van travelled alone: the solo-travel share was 89.5% in May 2024. Public transit was the main mode for 11.4% of Canadian commuters, while active transportation accounted for 6.0% of commuting.
Urban transit use had not fully returned to its earlier level. Canadian urban transit ridership in May 2024 reached 87.0% of its May 2019 level. This is a comparison of the May 2024 and May 2019 levels, not a forecast of future ridership.
The Canadian Labour Force Survey and Census populations used in the release have defined scopes. The figures generally concern people aged 15 to 69 in the provinces, and the definition of commuters can exclude people working mostly from home where the source specifies that treatment. Some May 2024 estimates are marked for caution in the source tables, so the published percentages should be read in that context.
Canadian metropolitan and mode differences
National averages conceal substantial metropolitan variation. Active transportation accounted for 18.7% of commuting in Victoria in May 2024 and 12.3% in Halifax. Both figures are above the 6.0% national active-transportation share reported for Canadian commuting in the same period, although the metropolitan and national measures should be interpreted within the source’s respective population definitions.
Hybrid workers who mostly worked from home also showed a different mode profile from commuters overall. In Canada, this group used public transit at a 25.5% rate in May 2024, compared with 11.4% for commuters overall. Their car, truck or van use was 67.0%, compared with 81.5% overall.
Toronto was especially notable among hybrid workers who mostly worked from home: 45.9% used public transit on commuting days in May 2024. This is a commuting-day measure for that subgroup, not a claim that 45.9% of all Toronto workers used public transit every day.
The following comparison keeps the populations and periods aligned within the Canadian May 2024 release:
| Measure | Hybrid workers mostly working from home | Canadian commuters overall |
|---|---|---|
| Public transit use | 25.5% | 11.4% |
| Car, truck or van use | 67.0% | 81.5% |
| Average commute | 40.8 minutes | 26.4 minutes for regular commuters |
The hybrid-worker commute average was 40.8 minutes. The figure describes the average commute for Canadian hybrid workers who mostly worked from home, while the 26.4-minute figure describes regular Canadian commuters. They are different groups, so the comparison should not be treated as a controlled estimate of the effect of hybrid work.
Commute duration and long journeys
Regular Canadian commuters averaged 26.4 minutes per commute in May 2024. Mode-specific averages varied considerably. The average car, truck or van commute was 24.6 minutes, public transit was 43.1 minutes, and active transportation was 14.6 minutes.
Among Canada’s largest census metropolitan areas, Toronto had an average commute of 33.3 minutes in May 2024. Oshawa had an average commute of 32.6 minutes. Both metropolitan figures were longer than the national average for regular commuters, but they are presented as metropolitan averages rather than as a ranking of every Canadian urban area.
Taken together, the Canadian duration figures show why a national mode share can hide different daily experiences. Public transit represented 11.4% of the main commuting modes, yet its average commute was 43.1 minutes. Active transportation represented 6.0% and averaged 14.6 minutes. The figures describe observed averages for May 2024; they do not establish why one mode took longer than another.
For cross-country comparisons, measurement scope remains essential. Great Britain’s 2023 commuting figures cover workers’ usual methods and average journeys, while Canada’s figures refer to specified May 2024 Labour Force Survey and Census populations. England’s travel measures cover residents’ personal travel, and the London, urban and rural figures describe commuting trips. Keeping those periods, geographies and definitions visible is necessary when using urban mobility statistics to understand how people move.