London was home to some *** million passenger cars in 2020. Between 1995 and 2020, the number of licensed cars in the capital city saw a net increase of ** percent, although figures have declined in the last two years recorded. Overall, there were some **** million cars in the United Kingdom in 2020. London has the longest metro network in Europe. However, despite efforts to promote public transportation as a way to reduce fossil fuel intensive car driving, the motor vehicle still proved popular.

Pollution fighting schemes

In recent years, the Greater London Authority has increased incentives to stifle car usage in the city center. It introduced the Congestion Charge Zone in 2003, the Low Emission Zone in 2008, and followed up with the Ultra Low Emission Zone in early 2019, which are all intended to reduce traffic pollution and improve air quality. On average, around *** million unique vehicles traversed the Congestion Charge Zone every month in 2018.

Car-sharing: a means to reduce car ownership

According to a 2018 survey, members of car-sharing clubs in London are more likely to own no cars of their own after joining. While more than half of those participating in car sharing associations were already car-less before becoming members, the share increased to ** percent after. Vehicle sales in the UK declined dramatically amid the onset of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020.

The East of England was the English region with the highest average number of cars or vans owned per household. All regions recorded an ownership of at least one car, with London being the only exception where the average numbered *** in 2017/18. According to a 2017 Statista survey, ** percent of respondents from the East of England reported owning a car. This was surprisingly lower than other English regions. The East Midlands had seen the highest share of car owners at ** percent, only outranked by Northern Ireland.

 East of England has most multiple car owners

The East of England also tied with the South East, South West, and East Midlands as having the highest percentage of households, owning more than one car. In 2017/18, it was estimated that ** percent of residents from the East were multiple car owners. By comparison, ** percent reported having no car or van within their household.

 ** percent of UK residents have car available  

A 2017 Statista survey found that roughly ** percent of UK residents had a car permanently available to them in their household. Of these, ** percent had their own car.

This dataset provides Census 2021 estimates that classify households in England and Wales by tenure, by car or van availability, and by number of usual residents aged 17 or over in the household. The estimates are as at Census Day, 21 March 2021.

There is evidence of people incorrectly identifying their type of landlord as ”Council or local authority” or “Housing association”. You should add these two categories together when analysing data that uses this variable. Read more about this quality notice.

Area type

Census 2021 statistics are published for a number of different geographies. These can be large, for example the whole of England, or small, for example an output area (OA), the lowest level of geography for which statistics are produced.

For higher levels of geography, more detailed statistics can be produced. When a lower level of geography is used, such as output areas (which have a minimum of 100 persons), the statistics produced have less detail. This is to protect the confidentiality of people and ensure that individuals or their characteristics cannot be identified.

Coverage

Census 2021 statistics are published for the whole of England and Wales. Data are also available in these geographic types:

• country - for example, Wales
• region - for example, London
• local authority - for example, Cornwall
• health area – for example, Clinical Commissioning Group
• statistical area - for example, MSOA or LSOA

Tenure of household

Whether a household owns or rents the accommodation that it occupies.

Owner-occupied accommodation can be:

• owned outright, which is where the household owns all of the accommodation
• with a mortgage or loan
• part-owned on a shared ownership scheme

Rented accommodation can be:

• private rented, for example, rented through a private landlord or letting agent
• social rented through a local council or housing association

This information is not available for household spaces with no usual residents.

Car or van availability

The number of cars or vans owned or available for use by household members.

Vehicles included:

• pick-ups, camper vans and motor homes
• vehicles that are temporarily not working
• vehicles that have failed their MOT
• vehicles owned or used by a lodger
• company cars or vans if they're available for private use

Vehicles not included:

• motorbikes, trikes, quad bikes or mobility scooters
• vehicles that have a Statutory Off Road Notification (SORN)
• vehicles owned or used only by a visitor
• vehicles that are kept at another address or not easily accessed

The number of cars or vans in an area relates only to households. Cars or vans used by communal establishment residents are not counted.

Households with 10 to 20 cars or vans are counted as having only 10.

Households with more than 20 cars or vans were treated as invalid and a value imputed.

Number of people aged 17 years or over in household

The number of people in a household aged 17 years and over.

This dataset provides Census 2021 estimates that classify Household Reference Persons in England and Wales by tenure by car or van availability, and by ethnic group. The estimates are as at Census Day, 21 March 2021.

There is evidence of people incorrectly identifying their type of landlord as ”Council or local authority” or “Housing association”. You should add these two categories together when analysing data that uses this variable. Read more about this quality notice.

Area type

Census 2021 statistics are published for a number of different geographies. These can be large, for example the whole of England, or small, for example an output area (OA), the lowest level of geography for which statistics are produced.

For higher levels of geography, more detailed statistics can be produced. When a lower level of geography is used, such as output areas (which have a minimum of 100 persons), the statistics produced have less detail. This is to protect the confidentiality of people and ensure that individuals or their characteristics cannot be identified.

Lower tier local authorities

Lower tier local authorities provide a range of local services. There are 309 lower tier local authorities in England made up of 181 non-metropolitan districts, 59 unitary authorities, 36 metropolitan districts and 33 London boroughs (including City of London). In Wales there are 22 local authorities made up of 22 unitary authorities.

Coverage

Census 2021 statistics are published for the whole of England and Wales. However, you can choose to filter areas by:

• country - for example, Wales
• region - for example, London
• local authority - for example, Cornwall
• health area – for example, Clinical Commissioning Group
• statistical area - for example, MSOA or LSOA

Tenure of household

Whether a household owns or rents the accommodation that it occupies.

Owner-occupied accommodation can be:

• owned outright, which is where the household owns all of the accommodation
• with a mortgage or loan
• part-owned on a shared ownership scheme

Rented accommodation can be:

• private rented, for example, rented through a private landlord or letting agent
• social rented through a local council or housing association

This information is not available for household spaces with no usual residents.

Car or van availability

The number of cars or vans owned or available for use by household members.

Vehicles included:

• pick-ups, camper vans and motor homes
• vehicles that are temporarily not working
• vehicles that have failed their MOT
• vehicles owned or used by a lodger
• company cars or vans if they're available for private use

Vehicles not included:

• motorbikes, trikes, quad bikes or mobility scooters
• vehicles that have a Statutory Off Road Notification (SORN)
• vehicles owned or used only by a visitor
• vehicles that are kept at another address or not easily accessed

The number of cars or vans in an area relates only to households. Cars or vans used by communal establishment residents are not counted.

Households with 10 to 20 cars or vans are counted as having only 10.

Households with more than 20 cars or vans were treated as invalid and a value imputed.

Ethnic group

The ethnic group that the person completing the census feels they belong to. This could be based on their culture, family background, identity or physical appearance.

Respondents could choose one out of 19 tick-box response categories, including write-in response options.

This dataset provides Census 2021 estimates that classify usual residents in households in England and Wales by general health, car or van availability, and by sex. The estimates are as at Census Day, 21 March 2021.

Area type

Census 2021 statistics are published for a number of different geographies. These can be large, for example the whole of England, or small, for example an output area (OA), the lowest level of geography for which statistics are produced.

For higher levels of geography, more detailed statistics can be produced. When a lower level of geography is used, such as output areas (which have a minimum of 100 persons), the statistics produced have less detail. This is to protect the confidentiality of people and ensure that individuals or their characteristics cannot be identified.

Lower tier local authorities

Lower tier local authorities provide a range of local services. There are 309 lower tier local authorities in England made up of 181 non-metropolitan districts, 59 unitary authorities, 36 metropolitan districts and 33 London boroughs (including City of London). In Wales there are 22 local authorities made up of 22 unitary authorities.

Coverage

Census 2021 statistics are published for the whole of England and Wales. However, you can choose to filter areas by:

• country - for example, Wales
• region - for example, London
• local authority - for example, Cornwall
• health area – for example, Clinical Commissioning Group
• statistical area - for example, MSOA or LSOA

General health

A person's assessment of the general state of their health from very good to very bad. This assessment is not based on a person's health over any specified period of time.

Car or van availability

The number of cars or vans owned or available for use by household members.

Vehicles included:

• pick-ups, camper vans and motor homes
• vehicles that are temporarily not working
• vehicles that have failed their MOT
• vehicles owned or used by a lodger
• company cars or vans if they're available for private use

Vehicles not included:

• motorbikes, trikes, quad bikes or mobility scooters
• vehicles that have a Statutory Off Road Notification (SORN)
• vehicles owned or used only by a visitor
• vehicles that are kept at another address or not easily accessed

The number of cars or vans in an area relates only to households. Cars or vans used by communal establishment residents are not counted.

Households with 10 to 20 cars or vans are counted as having only 10.

Households with more than 20 cars or vans were treated as invalid and a value imputed.

Sex

This is the sex recorded by the person completing the census. The options were “Female” and “Male”.

Average car and van occupancy in England amounted to roughly 1.6 in 2018. That year, the source rounded figures to the nearest decimal, making a comparison with previous years difficult. In 2017, there were 1.55 people in a car or van per journey. Between 2002 and 2017, figures oscillated between 1.59 and 1.55, with highest figures recorded for 2002 and 2008.

Car ownership in England

Car ownership was highest in Southern England, with residents in the East, South East, South West and East Midlands owning an average of 1.4 cars per household. In the East of England and the East Midlands 43 percent of households were multiple car owners. Overall, 53 percent of United Kingdom motorists had one car available to them.

Car availability in household

According to a 2017 Statista survey, approximately 87 percent of United Kingdom residents had a car permanently available to them in their household. Of these, 66 percent had their own car.

This spreadsheet summarises of the key travel patterns and trends relating to the TFL network and Airports around London. Some of the borough level data has been analysed using these interactive charts. Click on the image to open. The first stack graph shows the spread of mode of travel for each borough. In Kensington and Chelsea over 44 per cent of journeys are made on foot, in Bexley 59 per cent of journeys are in a car/motorcycle, and in Hackney over a 25 per cent of journeys are by bus. The second graph shows the proportion of all road casualties by road user type and borough in 2010. The City of London has the highest proportion of casualties for pedestrians, and cyclists. https://s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/londondatastore-upload/transport-graph-thumb.png" alt=""> Some of the airports data has been presented in this one page factsheet that highlights some important facts about flights and passengers at London’s airports. The number one country where people have either come from or going to is the United States. https://s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/londondatastore-upload/transport-airports-thumb.png" alt=""> List of tables included in the spreadsheet: 1 Aggregate travel volumes in Greater London. Estimated daily average number of journey stages, 1993-2009 2 Modal shares of daily journey stages in London, 2009 3 Annual passenger kilometres travelled by public transport (millions), London, 2008/09 - 2010/11 4 Annual journey stages by public transport (millions), 1991/92 - 2010/11 5 Index of London road traffic, major and minor roads, all motor vehicles, 2000-2009 6 Trends in road casualties, by personal injury severity, London and GB, 1991-2010 7 London road casualties by mode of travel, 2010 8 Trends in cycle flows on the TLRN, annualised indices, 2000/01 - 2010/11 9 People entering central London in the weekday morning peak, 1978 - 2009 10 Car ownership in Inner and Outer London, 2009/10 11 Hours of serious and severe disruption London-wide, 2009/10 12 Number of road works undertaken on the TLRN, Sep 2009 - Oct 2010 13 London Underground: scheduled and operated train kilometres, 1995/96 - 2009/10 14 London Underground - operated train kilometres (millions) by line, 2009/10 15 Average number of passengers per bus, train or tram, 2001/02 - 2009/10 16 Public transport fares - UK and London compared, 1994/95 - 2009/10 17 Air freight moved through London's principal airports, 1993 - 2009 18 Terminal passengers by London area airport, in millions, 2000, 2010 19 Terminal passengers by London area airport, 1990 - 2010 20 Terminal passengers by flight's country of origin or destination, 2010 21 Road Casualties by Severity and Road User Type, by Borough 2010 22 Data used in the Interactive Chart - Number of trips, distribution of trips by mode and average travel time from home to work, 2007/2008 to 2009/10 (3-year moving average) 23 Data used for Air Transport Factsheet - International terminal passengers at London airports, 2010 - All terminal passengers at London airports, in millions, 2000, 2010 - Terminal passengers at London airports by origin or destination of the flight, 2010 - Number of UK flights and passenger by London airport, 2010 Most data is from the annual report Travel in London 3, Transport for London. Further information, reports and data from the Travel in London series can be found on the TFL website.

This dataset provides Census 2021 estimates that classify households in England and Wales by car or van availability and by household composition. The estimates are as at Census Day, 21 March 2021.

Read more about this quality notice.

Area type

Census 2021 statistics are published for a number of different geographies. These can be large, for example the whole of England, or small, for example an output area (OA), the lowest level of geography for which statistics are produced.

For higher levels of geography, more detailed statistics can be produced. When a lower level of geography is used, such as output areas (which have a minimum of 100 persons), the statistics produced have less detail. This is to protect the confidentiality of people and ensure that individuals or their characteristics cannot be identified.

Lower tier local authorities

Lower tier local authorities provide a range of local services. There are 309 lower tier local authorities in England made up of 181 non-metropolitan districts, 59 unitary authorities, 36 metropolitan districts and 33 London boroughs (including City of London). In Wales there are 22 local authorities made up of 22 unitary authorities.

Coverage

Census 2021 statistics are published for the whole of England and Wales. However, data is available by:

country - for example, Wales region - for example, London local authority - for example, Cornwall health area – for example, Clinical Commissioning Group statistical area - for example, MSOA or LSOA

Car or van availability

The number of cars or vans owned or available for use by household members.

Vehicles included:

• pick-ups, camper vans and motor homes
• vehicles that are temporarily not working
• vehicles that have failed their MOT
• vehicles owned or used by a lodger
• company cars or vans if they're available for private use

Vehicles not included:

• motorbikes, trikes, quad bikes or mobility scooters
• vehicles that have a Statutory Off Road Notification (SORN)
• vehicles owned or used only by a visitor
• vehicles that are kept at another address or not easily accessed

The number of cars or vans in an area relates only to households. Cars or vans used by communal establishment residents are not counted.

Households with 10 to 20 cars or vans are counted as having only 10.

Households with more than 20 cars or vans were treated as invalid and a value imputed.

Household composition

Households according to the relationships between members.

One-family households are classified by:

• the number of dependent children
• family type (married, civil partnership or cohabiting couple family, or lone parent family)

Other households are classified by:

• the number of people
• the number of dependent children
• whether the household consists only of students or only of people aged 66 and over

Data about household relationships might not always look consistent with legal partnership status. This is because of complexity of living arrangements and the way people interpreted these questions. Take care when using these two variables together.

In Western Europe in the early twentieth century, the rate of car ownership increased rapidly, while ownership across the south and east was significantly lower. Between the First and Second World Wars, the number of cars in the eight largest Western European economies rose from just nine per 1,000 inhabitants in 1914 to 217 per 1,000 inhabitants in 1939. In six select countries across the south and east of Europe, these figures rose from just one to 17. There was a slight decrease in the number of cars over the 1940s due to the impact of the Second World War.

This dataset provides Census 2021 estimates that classify usual residents in households in England and Wales by method used to travel to work (2001 specification) and by car or van availability. The estimates are as at Census Day, 21 March 2021.

_As Census 2021 was during a unique period of rapid change, take care when using this data for planning purposes. Due to methodological changes the ‘mainly work at or from home: any workplace type’ category has a population of zero. Please use the transport_to_workplace_12a classification instead. Read more about this quality notice._

Area type

Census 2021 statistics are published for a number of different geographies. These can be large, for example the whole of England, or small, for example an output area (OA), the lowest level of geography for which statistics are produced.

For higher levels of geography, more detailed statistics can be produced. When a lower level of geography is used, such as output areas (which have a minimum of 100 persons), the statistics produced have less detail. This is to protect the confidentiality of people and ensure that individuals or their characteristics cannot be identified.

Lower tier local authorities

Lower tier local authorities provide a range of local services. There are 309 lower tier local authorities in England made up of 181 non-metropolitan districts, 59 unitary authorities, 36 metropolitan districts and 33 London boroughs (including City of London). In Wales there are 22 local authorities made up of 22 unitary authorities.

Coverage

Census 2021 statistics are published for the whole of England and Wales. However, you can choose to filter areas by:

• country - for example, Wales
• region - for example, London
• local authority - for example, Cornwall
• health area – for example, Clinical Commissioning Group
• statistical area - for example, MSOA or LSOA

Method used to travel to workplace

A person's place of work and their method of travel to work. This is the 2001 method of producing travel to work variables.

"Work mainly from home" applies to someone who indicated their place of work as their home address and travelled to work by driving a car or van, for example visiting clients.

Car or van availability

The number of cars or vans owned or available for use by household members.

Vehicles included:

• pick-ups, camper vans and motor homes
• vehicles that are temporarily not working
• vehicles that have failed their MOT
• vehicles owned or used by a lodger
• company cars or vans if they're available for private use

Vehicles not included:

• motorbikes, trikes, quad bikes or mobility scooters
• vehicles that have a Statutory Off Road Notification (SORN)
• vehicles owned or used only by a visitor
• vehicles that are kept at another address or not easily accessed

The number of cars or vans in an area relates only to households. Cars or vans used by communal establishment residents are not counted.

Households with 10 to 20 cars or vans are counted as having only 10.

Households with more than 20 cars or vans were treated as invalid and a value imputed.

A set of surveys of public attitudes to issues around self-driving vehicles. Our major sample is from the UK public, with a smaller US sample and a small group of expert respondents for comparison.

Background The prospect of self-driving vehicles on our roads has attracted considerable public attention, and private and government investment. As vehicles have started to be tested, it has become clear that their interactions with other road users and broader social implications are complex and potentially controversial. The need for governance is becoming clearer. Questions of how safe the technology needs to be, who is likely to benefit and who should be making decisions are becoming ever more important.

At the end of 2021, we surveyed a sample of 4,860 members of the British public to capture their opinions on self-driving vehicles. The survey was part of Driverless Futures? (driverless-futures.com), a project funded by the UK Economic and Social Research Council, with researchers from University College London, UWE Bristol and City, University of London. Our questions were derived from a set of more than 50 expert interviews and a programme of public dialogue that identified key issues for governance of the technology.

Most surveys of public attitudes towards self-driving vehicles have addressed respondents as potential users or consumers of the technology. Our survey is different. We address our respondents as citizens, to ask them how they wish to see the future of mobility.

Our respondents all answered most of the survey questions before being divided into five groups for modules on specific topics relating to self-driving vehicles. On some matters our respondents return a clear consensus; on others, opinions are diverse. The range of sentiments include excitement and scepticism about the benefits, the safety, and the wider impacts of introducing self-driving vehicles.

We have also fielded this survey in the US (N=1,890) (data collection in February and March 2022) and deployed a shortened version for a convenience sample of 'experts' (N=80).

In the middle of the afternoon on May 7th, 2016, near Williston, Florida, Joshua Brown joined the long list of fatalities on the world's roads. However, his death was different. He was his car's only occupant but, as far as we know, he was not driving. His car was in 'Autopilot' mode. The technology in his Tesla Model S that was designed to keep him safe failed to see a white truck that was crossing his carriageway against the bright white sky behind it. Brown's Tesla hit the trailer at 74mph, after which it left the road and hit a post. Had the car veered left instead of right, crossing onto the opposite carriageway, the world's first fatal self-driving car crash could have caused a higher death toll and even greater controversy.

Self-driving cars promise to be one of the most disruptive technologies of the early 21st Century. Enthusiasts for the technology think that it could solve problems such as access to transport for disabled people, traffic jams and hundreds of thousands of deaths on the road each year, most of which are cause by human error. Some companies say they will sell self-driving cars as early as 2018. Governments in the UK and elsewhere see huge potential in securing economic growth and new high-tech jobs for their populations. The UK's Industrial Strategy has prioritised self-driving cars and increased investment in the machine learning technologies that will allow computers to replace humans behind the wheel. Morgan Stanley, an investment bank, forecasts a multi-trillion dollar global market with billions of extra dollars in productivity gains in a 'New Auto Industry Paradigm'. The consultancy firm KPMG calls self-driving cars 'The Next Revolution'.

The typical approach to a new technology is for society to understand its effects only in hindsight. For self-driving cars, this would be a bad idea. Policymakers, innovators and the public risk sleepwalking into a future in which technology worsens inequality and loses public trust. The history of the car in the 20th Century shows us that, while technologies can have enormous benefits, they can also cause harm and lock society into new ways of living that then prove hard to change. For self-driving cars, the question is whether we can develop a more alert approach to the technology as it is emerging, before it becomes part of our everyday lives. Rather than innovation being 'driverless', we should look for ways in which innovators and policymakers can take responsibility for the futures they help create.

To maximise the public benefits of self-driving cars, we should scrutinise innovations and policies that are currently underway. The engineering of our future transport systems is too important to be left to engineers alone. There is a need for democratic discussion of the opportunities and uncertainties of self-driving cars. Rather than guessing at the hopes and fears of consumers and citizens, we should instead ask people what they really think.

In 2017, the House of Lords science and technology committee concluded, "There is a clear need for further Government-commissioned social and economic research to weigh the potential human and financial implications of CAV (Connected and Autonomous Vehicles)." But, while investment in self-driving cars currently totals around $80 billion, there is almost no social science exploring public views about what self-driving cars could mean for the future of transport. This proposal is for the world's first major social science project to bring the public voice into the debate on the future of self-driving cars.

This dataset provides Census 2021 estimates that classify usual residents in households in England and Wales by disability and by car or van availability. The estimates are as at Census Day, 21 March 2021.

Area type

Census 2021 statistics are published for a number of different geographies. These can be large, for example the whole of England, or small, for example an output area (OA), the lowest level of geography for which statistics are produced.

For higher levels of geography, more detailed statistics can be produced. When a lower level of geography is used, such as output areas (which have a minimum of 100 persons), the statistics produced have less detail. This is to protect the confidentiality of people and ensure that individuals or their characteristics cannot be identified.

Lower tier local authorities

Lower tier local authorities provide a range of local services. There are 309 lower tier local authorities in England made up of 181 non-metropolitan districts, 59 unitary authorities, 36 metropolitan districts and 33 London boroughs (including City of London). In Wales there are 22 local authorities made up of 22 unitary authorities.

Coverage

Census 2021 statistics are published for the whole of England and Wales. However, you can choose to filter areas by:

• country - for example, Wales
• region - for example, London
• local authority - for example, Cornwall
• health area – for example, Clinical Commissioning Group
• statistical area - for example, MSOA or LSOA

Disability - Equality act disabled

People who assessed their day-to-day activities as limited by long-term physical or mental health conditions or illnesses are considered disabled. This definition of a disabled person meets the harmonised standard for measuring disability and is in line with the Equality Act (2010).

Car or van availability

The number of cars or vans owned or available for use by household members.

Vehicles included:

• pick-ups, camper vans and motor homes
• vehicles that are temporarily not working
• vehicles that have failed their MOT
• vehicles owned or used by a lodger
• company cars or vans if they're available for private use

Vehicles not included:

• motorbikes, trikes, quad bikes or mobility scooters
• vehicles that have a Statutory Off Road Notification (SORN)
• vehicles owned or used only by a visitor
• vehicles that are kept at another address or not easily accessed

The number of cars or vans in an area relates only to households. Cars or vans used by communal establishment residents are not counted.

Households with 10 to 20 cars or vans are counted as having only 10.

Households with more than 20 cars or vans were treated as invalid and a value imputed.

The report looks into the various drivers of social exclusion amongst older people (although many of these indicators are equally relevant amongst all age groups) and attempts to identify areas in London where susceptibility is particularly high. Six key drivers have been included with various indicators used in an attempt to measure these. The majority of these indicators are at Lower Super Output Area (LSOA) level in an effort to identify areas at as small a geography as possible. Key Driver Indicator Description Economic Situation Income deprivation Income Deprivation Affecting Older People Score from the 2015 Indices of Deprivation Transport Accessibility Public Transport Average Public Transport Accessibility Score Car access Percentage aged 65 and over with no cars or vans in household Household Ties One person households Percentage aged 65+ living alone Providing unpaid care Percentage aged 65+ providing 50 or more hours of unpaid care a week Neighbourhood Ties Proficiency in English Percent aged 65+ who cannot speak English well Churn Rate Churn Rate: (inflow+outflow) per 100 population Health Mental health Estimated prevalence of dementia amongst population aged 65 and over (%) General health Percentage aged 65+ with a limiting long-term health problem or disability Safety Fear of crime Percentage in borough worried about anti-social behaviour in area Percentage in borough who feel unsafe walking alone after dark Crime rates Total offences per 100 population

The Going Car Free project, coordinated by climate action charity Possible, follows individuals as they hang up the keys to their cars for three weeks. Possible are funded partners in the ESRC Centre for Climate and Social Transformation, and this project aims to understand the immediate and lasting impacts of the trial on everyday mobility. For the first week of the trial, participants were monitored using their vehicle as usual. The following three weeks they attempted to continue their typical everyday routines without the use of their private vehicle. Researchers from the University of Manchester, Cardiff University, and the University of Bristol interviewed participants with the aim of understanding the changes that individuals made to live a car-free lifestyle, what their experiences of car-free living were, and what barriers (both personal and structural) – if any – prevented them giving up their cars altogether. Qualitative interview data for two car-free living experiments are included within this data deposit.

Experiment 1 involved 12 people in four cities (Birmingham, Bristol, Leeds and London), though one individual did not complete the trial. The individuals were selected to ensure a range of experiences and backgrounds, sampling for age, gender, childcare and caring responsibilities, ethnicity, and disability. The challenge ran from 10th January to 6th February 2022, and the interviews were conducted immediately post-trial in February, and approximately 12 weeks after May/June 2022.

Experiment 2 was conducted in partnership with Low Carbon Oxford North (LCON) and was conducted in March 2024. 12 drivers from across the city, from a range of backgrounds and locations (again, sampled to reflect diverse backgrounds, identities, and personal circumstances, according to sample frame criteria that covered gender, age, ethnicity, religion, disability, long-term health conditions, childcare and caring responsibilities, types of employment, and location). Interviews were conducted in the first week of the challenge, and two weeks after the challenge had finished.

In both experiments, participants were paid to participate in the research, and their local travel expenses for their car-free weeks were reimbursed. They also received one-to-one support, and additional information about the options available to them, including a briefing pack with details and tips for walking, cycling, using public transport, and trying car clubs or car sharing. They had access to cycle hire, cycle repair, complementary cycle insurance, and car club membership.

Centre for Climate Change and Social Transformations is a global hub for understanding the profound changes required to address climate change. At its core, is a fundamental question of enormous social significance: how can we as a society live differently - and better - in ways that meet the urgent need for rapid and far-reaching emission reductions? While there is now strong international momentum on action to tackle climate change, it is clear that critical targets (such as keeping global temperature rise to well within 2 degrees Celsius relative to pre-industrial levels) will be missed without fundamental transformations across all parts of society. CAST's aim is to advance society's understanding of how to transform lifestyles, organisations and social structures in order to achieve a low-carbon future, which is genuinely sustainable over the long-term. Our Centre will focus on people as agents of transformation in four challenging areas of everyday life that impact directly on climate change but have proven stubbornly resistant to change: consumption of goods and physical products, food and diet, travel, and heating/cooling. We will work across multiple scales (individual, community, organisational, national and global) to identify and experiment with various routes to achieving lasting change in these challenging areas.

The Going Car Free project, coordinated by climate action charity Possible, follows individuals as they hang up the keys to their cars for three weeks. Possible are funded partners in the ESRC Centre for Climate and Social Transformation, and this project aims to understand the immediate and lasting impacts of the trial on everyday mobility. For the first week of the trail, participants were monitored using their vehicle as usual. The following three weeks they attempted to continue their typical everyday routines without the use of their private vehicle. Researchers from the University of Manchester, Cardiff University, and University of Bristol interviewed participants with the aim of understanding the changes that individuals made to live a car-free lifestyle, what their experiences of car-free living were and what barriers (both personal and structural) – if any – prevented them giving up their cars altogether. Qualitative interview data for two car-free living experiments are included within this data deposit.

Cars and vans were the most popular mode of transport for commuting purposes in England. In 2019, car and van drivers travelled an average of 782 miles per person per year, roughly three times the distance travelled by those using surface rail as a means of commuting. In Great Britain overall, the car was used by more than two thirds of commuters, by far the majority of those travelling to work. In the past three years, the popularity of the car was unchallenged.

Train commutes the longest

The average commuting time for those travelling via rail was an hour, which suggested that those using rail tended to do so when needing to traverse greater distances. By comparison, the average car commute was 26 minutes long in 2017.

Company cars have greatest annual mileage

The greatest commuting mileage of car drivers was covered by those driving company vehicles. In 2018, a company car user drove nearly four times the distance someone using a private car travelled.