A phased relaxation of lockdown restrictions, between March and
July 2021, largely failed to stimulate a bounce-back in trips and
distance covered by UK travellers last year, today’s National
Travel Survey figures reveal*.
However, the Department for Transport statistics reveal that the
Government and councils wasted an opportunity in 2020 to
encourage and change travel behaviour and get more people to
cycle.
In 2020, the distance cycled on average had shot up 62%, with the
number of trips up 26%. In 2021, compared to pre-pandemic levels,
the average distance was up only 2% and the trips 7% lower**.
“The reversal of lockdown trends that saw a surge in active
travel in 2020, such as cycling, points to the Government and
councils’ failure to seize the opportunity to ingrain and promote
more of those changed behaviours into the way the UK travels,”
says Edmund King, the AA’s president.
“Today’s statistics also show that while the path out of lockdown
was a cause of great celebration, the pandemic continued to cast
a long shadow over UK travel throughout much of 2021. In
particular, the one lockdown trend that has endured has been
working from home, and still probably accounts for the 5%-10%
reduction in weekday car travel that exists today.
An AA poll of more than 15,000 drivers in July found that, even
with record pump prices beyond anything that could have been
imagined a year ago, only 2% of them had ditched the car and were
walking or cycling instead***.
King adds: “The AA has pleaded with the Government and councils
to expand park and ride and park and cycle facilities on the
outskirts of cities and towns, following the huge success of
schemes such as in Cambridge. Instead, too many cities have gone
for urban access charges that hit lower-income drivers, and in
London drove those poorer car-owning residents off the road.
“Park and Ride influences all drivers not just the ones with
older and more polluting vehicles – and it will continue to
reduce car trips into busy urban centres long after those older
cars have been scrapped.”
ends
NOTES TO EDITORS
*https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1101056/nts-2021-factsheet.pdf
**https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1019462/nts-factsheet-2020.pdf
*** AA Yonder Driver Poll, July 2022. 15,057 respondents.
