People are travelling more for pleasure

What does the image show?

The image shows what percentage of people were doing more (shaded bar above the line) or less (striped bar below the line) travel for to visit friends and family or for day trips by different modes in June this year compared with six months previously. The chart shows that within any headline figure of change, there are lots of changes going on in both directions although more people are doing more visits and day trips by every mode.

Why is this important?

The data shows that there is an increase in leisure journeys by all forms of transport. This suggests that concerns about an aversion to public transport might be overstated. There are some seasonal effects to be considered in interpreting the data, particularly on active travel as we would, in any case, expect cycling and walking levels in June to be higher than January due to daylight hours and weather effects and so a longer-term view of the data will be necessary to explore the extent to which these mark behavioural shifts.