New report explores travel patterns

  • Craig Foss
Transport

Associate Transport Minister Craig Foss is welcoming a new report exploring New Zealanders’ daily travel patterns.

The report, 25 years of New Zealand Travel: New Zealand Household Travel 1989-2014, celebrates two and half decades of the NZ Household Travel Survey and collates its results.

Mr Foss, who is speaking at the Transport Knowledge Conference in Wellington this morning, says the survey provides a better understanding of transport in people’s daily lives.

“Information from the survey is used to help make decisions about New Zealand’s transport network, including roads, cycle and walkways, as well as public transport,” Mr Foss says.

“There are interesting and sometimes surprising results.  For example, since the late 1980s, the average amount of time spent driving in a car each day has risen by only four minutes — from 28 to 32 minutes.”

The survey also highlights regional variations in travel habits. Hamiltonians are more likely than those living in other major urban centres to drive to work, Wellingtonians are more likely to take the bus and those living in Christchurch are more likely to cycle.

The report and background information is available at: http://www.transport.govt.nz/research/travelsurvey/25-years-of-nz-travel