NTS Analytics - Trip Length Distributions
Back to Resource HubWhat is it?
This dataset shows how travel demand changes with distance, using data from the National Travel Survey. It explains how many trips people make, how far they go and how this varies by mode.
How is it useful?
It helps analysts use realistic trip distances in modelling and forecasting, based on how people actually travel. You can use it to test whether schemes are likely to attract short or long trips and to improve demand assumptions. This leads to more accurate forecasts and stronger evidence for scheme design and funding business cases.
Dataset code
01201
Licence
Open Government Licence 3.0
Limitations
NTS data is based on real-surveyed data and therefore has some limitations. The lowest geography in the data is Unitary Authority and cannot be reported any lower. Due to sample sizes the data is served across all available years and therefore shows an average. Most of the sample exists for car journies and other modes are less well represented. Very short distance active trips are often missed when users are filling out the survey (i.e. trips that are a walk to the corner shop)
Attributions
Cuts of NTS data are licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0 (https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/) with the following attributions:
Source: Department for Transport. (2024). National Travel Survey, 2002-2023: Special Licence Access. [data collection]. 13th Edition. UK Data Service. SN: 7553, DOI: http://doi.org/10.5255/UKDA-SN-7553-13