Official Statistics

Journey time statistics, England: 2019

Published 4 November 2021

Applies to England

About this release

This statistical release presents estimates of travel times from where people live to key local services for England in 2019.

Statistics are published at national, regional, local authority and small Census area (Lower Super Output Area) level, for 8 key local services by four modes of transport.

The statistics are designed to represent idealised journeys which are completed at the following times:

• a Tuesday in the second week October of the year to which they relate.
• during the ‘morning peak’ between 7am and 10am.

The journey time statistics series has previously been published for the years 2014 to 2017. Detailed data tables are available online.

For further details please refer to the background information section below and the separate technical guidance.

Headline figures for 2019

Changes to Journey time statistics 2019

Methodological changes:

A number of methodological changes were introduced for the 2019 statistics, including changing the source of the hospital destination dataset. See the Journey Times guidance for more details.

Walk indicators:

Walk indicators are only available for 2019.

Across a range of 8 key local services in England, the average minimum journey times to access the services from where people live are:

• 10 minutes by car
• 16 minutes by cycle
• 18 minutes by public transport or walking
• 28 minutes by walking only

Core metrics

The following core metrics are calculated for the journey time statistics.

Average minimum travel time (minutes). The shortest travel to a given type of service by a particular mode of transport, averaged over an area.

Destination indicators (%). The proportion of users in a given area that can access a service within a given time.

Origin indicators (number up to 10). The number of different services, up to 10, in a particular area that users can reach within a given time.

Journey times to key services

In general, accessing key services in England is usually fastest by car, followed by cycle, then by public transport or walking, then by walking only (Figure 1).

For those key services which are ‘delivered’ from the largest number of locations, journey times on average are shorter. Small employment centres (100 to 499 jobs), primary schools, and food stores have the shortest journey times, whereas the longest average journey times are observed for hospitals and also for large employment centres. In locations where there are the largest numbers of services, the variation between journey times by mode tend to be smaller. However, where there are fewer services available, there is a greater variation between modes, highlighting the relative travel time advantage of car travel to these locations.

Table 1 provides a summary of the number of potential destinations used for each key service type.

Table 1: Number of services considered for each key service type in these statistics, England, 2019

Key service	Number
Employment centres (small)	17,457
Employment centres (medium)	10,545
Employment centres (large)	843
Primary schools	16,948
Secondary schools	3,128
Further education	2,198
GPs	6,866
Hospitals	219
Food stores	23,161
Town centres	1,211

Figure 1: Average minimum travel time, minutes, to nearest service, by key service and mode of transport, England, 2019 (JTS0101)

Table 2: Average minimum travel time, minutes, to nearest service, by key service and mode of transport, England, 2019 (JTS0101)

Mode of transport	Employment (100 to 499 jobs)	Employment (500 to 4999 jobs)	Employment (5000 or more jobs)	Primary school	Secondary school	Further Education	GP	Hospital	Food store	Town Centres
Car	7	8	16	7	10	11	8	20	7	11
Cycle	9	10	30	9	14	17	11	37	9	17
Public transport or walking	9	11	31	9	18	21	13	41	9	20
Walking	11	15	58	9	26	34	18	75	11	37

Figure 2 shows that across 326 local authority districts in England and the four calculated modes, the average minimum travel time to all key services by car has the smallest range, with at least 90% of local authority districts having average minimum travel times within the range of 7 minutes (the lowest) and 13 minutes.

For all other modes, the ranges covering at least 90% of local authority districts are much wider, being between 8 minutes and 25 minutes for cycling, 9 minutes and 28 minutes for public transport or walking, and 9 minutes and 49 minutes for walking only.

Figure 2: Local authority districts average of minimum travel times, minutes, to nearest key services, by mode of transport, England, 2019 (JTS0104)

Urban and rural areas

This report uses the Defra Rural-Urban Classification, based on 2011 Census Output Areas.

The Rural-Urban Classification is used to distinguish rural and urban areas. The Classification defines areas as rural if they fall outside of settlements with a resident population greater than 10,000.

See Defra’s definitions and local authority classification for more details

Urban areas typically have lower minimum travel times across all services and modes of transport. Furthermore, urban areas have lower variation across the 4 modes, with the average minimum travel time to key services ranging between 9 and 22 minutes, compared to between 14 and 55 minutes in rural areas. Table 3 suggests a relative journey time advantage of travel by car in rural areas, and also that the comparative difference between urban and rural average minimum journey times to all key services is lowest for car journeys.

Table 3: Average minimum travel time, minutes, to all key services, by urban and rural area and mode of transport, England, 2019 (JTS0102)

Area	Car	Cycle	Public transport or walking	Walking
Urban	9	13	15	22
Rural	14	27	30	55

Whilst travel times are higher in rural areas, Figure 3 illustrates that the majority of the population (82%) live in urban areas with similar average minimum travel times to key services across each mode of transport. Rural villages in sparse settings, and rural hamlets and isolated dwellings in sparse settings have the longest journey times, however the population of each of these area types is below 0.5% of the population in England.

Figure 3: Average minimum travel time, minutes, to all key services, by urban or rural area type and mode of transport, with population, England, 2019 (JTS0102)

120 minutes journey time limit

A maximum value of 120 minutes is used where journey times exceed 120 minutes. This means that for some service by mode combinations (particularly for walking and smaller destination sets), the average provided is lower than would actually be the case in reality.

Destination indicators

Destination indicators (%)

The destination indicators reflect the percentage of the service ‘user population’ that can reach the nearest location providing that service within 15, 30, 45 or 60 minutes. User populations are different for each service.

User populations

The ‘user’ populations used for each service in the destination indicators are:

• population aged 16 to 74 years (employment)
• population aged 5 to 10 years (primary schools)
• population aged 11 to 15 years (secondary schools)
• population aged 16 to 19 years (further education)
• number of households (all other services).

Similar to the average minimum travel times, hospitals and large employment centres (5000 or more jobs) are the services with the lowest proportions of user populations that can be reached in a set amount of time, which is related to these services being delivered at fewer locations.

Tables 4 to 7 and Figures 4 to 7 provide a summary of the numbers of service users who are able to access each key service within given times for each calculated mode of transport.

Car

Figure 4: Percentage of service users able to access each key service within given times, by car, England, 2019 (JTS0201)

Table 4: Percentage of service users able to access each key service within given times, by car, England, 2019 (JTS0201)

Journey time	Employment (100 to 499 jobs)	Employment (500 to 4999 jobs)	Employment (5000 or more jobs)	Primary school	Secondary school	Further Education	GP	Hospital	Food store	Town Centres
Within 15 minutes	99	99	61	100	94	86	97	36	99	85
Within 30 minutes	100	100	92	100	100	99	100	88	100	100
Within 45 minutes	100	100	98	100	100	100	100	98	100	100
Within 60 minutes	100	100	99	100	100	100	100	100	100	100

Cycle

Figure 5: Percentage of service users able to access each key service within given times, by cycle, England, 2019 (JTS0201)

Table 5: Percentage of service users able to access each key service within given times, by cycle, England, 2019 (JTS0201)

Journey time	Employment (100 to 499 jobs)	Employment (500 to 4999 jobs)	Employment (5000 or more jobs)	Primary school	Secondary school	Further Education	GP	Hospital	Food store	Town Centres
Within 15 minutes	93	90	33	98	73	60	86	13	94	57
Within 30 minutes	99	99	70	100	95	90	98	54	99	89
Within 45 minutes	100	100	81	100	99	96	100	73	100	96
Within 60 minutes	100	100	88	100	100	99	100	83	100	99

Public transport or walking

Figure 6: Percentage of service users able to access each key service within given times, by public transport or walking, England, 2019 (JTS0201)

Table 6: Percentage of service users able to access each key service within given times, by public transport or walking, England, 2019 (JTS0201)

Journey time	Employment (100 to 499 jobs)	Employment (500 to 4999 jobs)	Employment (5000 or more jobs)	Primary school	Secondary school	Further Education	GP	Hospital	Food store	Town Centres
Within 15 minutes	87	76	16	92	42	32	70	4	91	33
Within 30 minutes	97	97	60	99	93	85	96	34	98	88
Within 45 minutes	99	99	84	100	98	96	99	66	99	97
Within 60 minutes	99	99	92	100	99	98	99	85	99	98

Walking

Figure 7: Percentage of service users able to access each key service within given times, by walking, England, 2019 (JTS0201)

Table 7: Percentage of service users able to access each key service within given times, by walking, England, 2019 (JTS0201)

Journey time	Employment (100 to 499 jobs)	Employment (500 to 4999 jobs)	Employment (5000 or more jobs)	Primary school	Secondary school	Further Education	GP	Hospital	Food store	Town Centres
Within 15 minutes	83	70	13	89	36	27	61	3	86	25
Within 30 minutes	93	90	32	98	77	64	86	14	94	56
Within 45 minutes	96	95	49	99	88	78	92	28	96	73
Within 60 minutes	98	97	61	100	92	85	95	42	98	82

Origin indicators

Origin indicators

Origin indicators illustrate how much choice users have when accessing key services. They measure the average number of key services available to users, in a particular area, within 15, 30, 45 or 60 minutes; up to a maximum of 10 locations.

For each selected journey time interval, users have access to more key service destinations by car than other modes (Table 8)

Table 8: Average number of key service destinations available to users within selected journey times (up to a maximum of 10), England, 2019 (JTS0301)

Journey time	Car	Cycle	Public transport or walking	Walking
Within 15 minutes	6	3	2	1
Within 30 minutes	8	6	5	3
Within 45 minutes	9	7	7	5
Within 60 minutes	10	8	8	6

Urban users have access to more service destinations for each set time interval and mode of transport (Tables 9 and 10)

Table 9: Average number of key service destinations available to users within selected journey times in urban areas (up to a maximum of 10), England, 2019 (JTS0302)

Journey time	Car	Cycle	Public transport or walking	Walking
Within 15 minutes	6	4	2	2
Within 30 minutes	9	7	6	4
Within 45 minutes	9	8	8	5
Within 60 minutes	10	9	9	6

Table 10: Average number of key service destinations available to users within selected journey times in rural areas (up to a maximum of 10), England, 2019 (JTS0302)

Journey time	Car	Cycle	Public transport or walking	Walking
Within 15 minutes	3	1	0	0
Within 30 minutes	7	3	3	1
Within 45 minutes	9	5	5	1
Within 60 minutes	9	6	6	2

Background information

About these statistics

This release is based upon modelling theoretical journey times from local neighbourhoods to a range of destination types for England.

The main features of the journey times model are:

The journey times are produced on a nationally consistent basis (as described in the Technical Documentation) allowing variations in transport access across the country to be seen, and different areas to be compared. However, it may be that more specialised local knowledge or more detailed data can provide a more accurate picture for any given area.

Changes in journey times over time may result from changes in the number and/or locations of key service destinations from year to year, or from changes to the road network or to public transport service timetables and coverage. It is also likely that changes to underlying data sets and methodology will affect the results seen in this release, therefore robust conclusions cannot be made about changes over time.

Further information on the data sources, the calculation methodology and the strengths and weaknesses of the methodology and these statistics can be found in the Technical Documentation.

Official Statistics

Official Statistics are produced to the high professional standards set by the Code of Practice for Statistics. However, these statistics have not yet been assessed by the Office for Statistics Regulation.

Details of ministers and officials who receive pre-release access to these statistics up to 24 hours before release can be found in the pre-release access list.

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Contact details

Journey time statistics

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