Road Usage – RoadFile

Roads are the key component of an integrated transport system. This section includes information on how many passenger, business and goods miles are travelled by different transport modes.

GB transport passengers by mode

wdt_ID	Year	Buses and coaches	Cars, vans and taxis	Motor cycles	Pedal cycles	All Road	Rail	Air	All modes
1	2012	42	647	5	5	699	70	8	777
2	2013	40	642	5	5	692	72	8	772
3	2014	40	654	5	6	704	75	8	788
4	2015	39	655	5	5	705	78	9	791
5	2016	34	668	5	6	712	80	9	801

Billion passenger kilometers

Source DfT

GB commuting by mode (percent)

wdt_ID	Year	Car	Motorcyle	Bicycle	Bus/Coach	Rail	Walk	Other
1	2012	68	1	3	7	9	11	1
2	2013	68	1	3	7	9	10	1
3	2014	68	1	3	7	9	10	1
4	2015	68	1	3	7	10	10	1
5	2016	65	1	4	7	10	11	1
6	2017	64	1	4	8	10	11	1

Source DfT

GB freight moved by mode (billion tonne kms)

wdt_ID	Year	Road	Rail	Water	Total
1	2012	143.00	21.00	36.00	200.00
2	2013	131.00	21.00	29.00	183.00
3	2014	128.00	23.00	27.00	177.00
4	2015	143.00	18.00	31.00	192.00
5	2016	148.00	17.00	30.00	196.00

Source Dft

GB freight lifted by mode (million tonnes)

wdt_ID	Year	Road	Rail	Water	Total
1	2012	1,427.00	113.00	96.00	1,635.00
2	2013	1,316.00	117.00	91.00	1,523.00
3	2014	1,322.00	111.00	95.00	1,527.00
4	2015	1,445.00	86.00	98.00	1,629.00
5	2016	1,434.00	79.00	102.00	1,615.00

Source Dft

GB - average distance travelled per person per year by mode (miles)

wdt_ID	Mode	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016	2017
1	Private:
2	Walk	190	195	190	192	198	206
3	Walk (of a mile or more)	103	110	103	106	95	97
4	Bicycle	55	49	58	53	53	60
5	Car / van driver	3,305	3,235	3,276	3,266	3,289	3,276
6	Car / van passenger	1,833	1,865	1,791	1,893	1,790	1,827
7	Motorcycle	39	31	30	30	34	36
8	Other private transport	93	123	106	98	93	97
9	Public:
10	Bus in London	77	82	77	86	61	78

Other private transport is mostly private hire bus (including school buses).
Other public transport is air, ferries and light rail.
Source DfT

GB - average journey distance travelled per person per mode (miles)

wdt_ID	Main mode	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016	2017
1	Private:
2	Walk	0.7	0.7	0.7	0.8	0.7	0.7
3	Walk (of a mile or more)	1.4	1.4	1.4	1.4	1.4	1.4
4	Bicycle	3.1	3.3	3.1	3.0	3.5	3.4
5	Car / van driver	8.3	8.5	8.5	8.6	8.4	8.4
6	Car / van passenger	8.6	8.9	8.7	9.3	8.8	8.9
7	Motorcycle	10.9	10.3	9.2	11.1	11.1	11.2
8	Other private transport	13.5	18.0	18.0	15.0	14.8	16.3
9	Public:
10	Bus in London	4.0	3.7	3.8	3.9	3.5	4.2

Other private transport is mostly private hire bus (including school buses).
Other public transport is air, ferries and light rail.
Source DfT

EU28 passenger travel by mode (billion km)

wdt_ID	Type	2012	2013	2014
1	Cars	4,621	4,678	4,766
2	Motorcycles	126	125	127
3	Bus/coach	525	528	526
4	Rail	420	425	428
5	Tram/metro	100	100	102
6	Air	572	579	605
7	Sea	42	39	38
8	Total	6,405	6,475	6,592

Source European Road Federation

EU passenger travel by car as a percentage of whole

wdt_ID	Country	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016
1	EU (28 countries)	82.80	83.00	83.10	83.10	82.90
2	Belgium	79.30	79.60	80.20	80.80	81.80
3	Bulgaria	82.10	83.00	82.30	83.20	83.70
4	Czech Republic	74.00	73.60	73.10	74.10	74.00
5	Denmark	79.90	79.90	80.20	80.80	81.60
6	Germany	85.40	85.80	85.70	85.60	85.70
7	Estonia	81.40	81.00	81.60	78.20	80.10
8	Ireland	82.80	83.20	79.80	80.40	79.90
9	Greece	81.60	81.30	81.40	81.40	81.90
10	Spain	80.70	80.30	82.70	81.40	81.60

Source Eurostat

EU passenger travel by bus as a percentage of whole

wdt_ID	Country	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016
1	EU (28 countries)	9.50	9.40	9.20	9.20	9.40
2	Belgium	12.90	12.20	11.70	11.40	10.50
3	Bulgaria	14.80	14.00	15.10	14.50	14.10
4	Czech Republic	17.70	17.90	18.50	17.30	17.10
5	Denmark	9.80	9.80	9.80	9.90	9.80
6	Germany	5.70	5.70	5.80	6.00	5.80
7	Estonia	16.80	17.40	16.50	20.00	17.90
8	Ireland	14.40	14.10	17.30	16.70	17.20
9	Greece	17.70	17.80	17.70	17.50	17.10
10	Spain	13.70	13.70	10.60	11.90	11.80

Source Eurostat

EU passenger travel by train as a percentage of whole

wdt_ID	Country	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016
1	EU (28 countries)	7.70	7.60	7.70	7.70	7.70
3	Belgium	7.80	8.20	8.10	7.80	7.70
4	Bulgaria	3.10	2.90	2.60	2.30	2.20
5	Czech Republic	8.30	8.50	8.40	8.60	8.90
6	Denmark	10.20	10.30	10.10	9.30	8.60
7	Germany	8.90	8.50	8.50	8.40	8.60
8	Estonia	1.80	1.60	1.90	1.80	2.00
9	Ireland	2.80	2.70	2.90	3.00	2.90
10	Greece	0.70	0.90	0.90	1.00	1.00
11	Spain	5.60	6.00	6.70	6.70	6.60

Source Eurostat

GB passenger transport by mode
GB commuting by mode
GB freight movement by mode
GB Average distance travelled pp per mode
GB Average trip length per mode
EU28 Passenger travel by mode
EU28 Freight by mode
European passenger travel by country

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