Bar chart: Average daily commute

The bar chart shows the average length of the daily commute in minutes by five modes of transport in one city.

Overall, public transport took the longest, and the train was the slowest of all, whereas walking and cycling involved the shortest journeys. The car lay between these two extremes.

Rail commuters spent an average of 62 minutes travelling each day, the longest time of any mode. Bus users came next, at 48 minutes, which was 14 minutes less than train passengers. Together, these two forms of public transport were clearly the most time-consuming ways of getting to work.

Car journeys averaged 36 minutes, 26 minutes shorter than the train and 12 minutes shorter than the bus. Cycling took 22 minutes on average, which was less than two-thirds of the time spent driving.

Walking was the quickest mode, at only 14 minutes. This was 8 minutes less than cycling and less than a quarter of the time that rail commuters spent travelling each day. Train journeys were therefore more than four times as long as walking trips.