Journey to work: Exploring difficulties, solutions, and the impact of aging

Figures & data

Table 1. Average distance traveled by age and mode: England, 2013 (all journeys).

	Age group
Mode	17–20	21–29	30–39	40–49	50–59	60–69	70+
Walk	240	216	215	178	166	162	112
Bicycle	40	69	79	92	53	33	10
Car/van driver	1,249	3,274	4,643	5,659	5,321	4,116	1,905
Car/van passenger	1,565	1,689	1,568	1,315	1,622	1,682	1,278
Other private transport^a	223	92	103	142	155	157	132
Local and nonlocal buses	726	381	234	258	211	332	529
Rail^b	838	1,183	1,039	857	780	447	199
Taxi/minicab	119	76	65	46	48	42	40
Other public transport^c	78	48	111	35	120	44	11

Source. Department for Transport, 2013.

^a Motorcycles and private hire bus.

^b Surface rail and London underground.

^c Air, ferries, and light rail.

Table 2. Journey difficulty categories by age group.

	Age group
Issue category	45–49 yrs, n = 339	50–55 yrs, n = 442	56–60 yrs, n = 304	>60 yrs, n = 124	All, n = 1215
Specific current difficulties	27%	26%	26%	17%	25%
Anticipate future problems	37%	32%	33%	23%	32%
Considered changing job/retiring	20%	18%	20%	20%	19%
Percent stating difficulties in at least one category	52%	47%	47%	37%	46%

Figure 1. Employees' current issues with the journey to work (n = 308 out of 1215).

Table 3. Current journey difficulties by age group (highest % across all age groups in bold).

	Age group (n = 305)
Issue	45–49, n = 91	50–55, n = 113	56–60, n = 80	60+, n = 21
Cost	55%	50%	51%	29%
Stress	15%	27%	19%	33%
Health	13%	12%	19%	10%
Fatigue	7%	9%	9%	14%
Journey time	12%	5%	8%	10%

Table 4. Mitigating strategies implemented by the employee and/or facilitated by the employer.

Implemented by employee	Employer facilitated	Either implemented by employee or employer facilitated
Buy a smaller more economical to run car	Work from home one or more days a week	Stay overnight near work place
Use cruise control on car to travel at a lower more fuel efficient speed	Take out a season ticket loan through employer	Car share^a
Buy a fixed price service plan	Increase number of hours worked	Avoid going to office that is more difficult to access
Change transport mode	Flexible working hours	Plan additional work-related journeys to coincide with the journey to and from work
Combine multiple trips	Reduce working hours to part time	Video conferencing
Buy saver tickets	Cycling allowance
Listen to radio and music	Time gap between shifts to ease parking
Work on train	Journey for secondment counted as work hours
Take different route

^aCar share occurs when someone who normally takes public transport will have occasional or regular lifts to work from a driver who is making the same journey. Car share could also allow two car drivers to reduce both of their costs (including both fuel and wear and tear) by sharing the use of one car, and taking it in turns to drive to work.

Transport, Department for. (2013). National Travel Survey: Average distance travelled by age, gender and mode: England, 2013 (Table NTS0605). Retrieved from http://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/nts06-age-gender-and-modal-breakdown

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