A travel-to-work survey of 3000 employed adults was carried out in three areas of greater Manchester. An inner area and two outer areas were selected for the study. This report gives a resume of the survey method and presents preliminary results on the differences of socioeconomic characteristics and travel behaviour in the three study areas. The preliminary results show that the main components of travel behaviour (such as mode, journey distance and journey time) varied considerably between the three areas. Workers living in the inner area made much more use of public transport than those living elsewhere in the metropolitan area. The use of a car as the main mode of transport to work is generally higher in outer areas. It is notable that although the levels of motor vehicle ownership and licence holding are similar in the inner area and in Wythenshawe, car use is much higher in the latter area. The report also shows that journey distances were higher in Wythenshawe than in the inner area (specially for bus journeys). however, in the traditional suburb of Swinton and Pendlebury where the local employment base is strong, people tend to live and work in close proximity and journey distances were shorter than in the inner area and the proportion of walk journeys was high. Despite the shorter distances, the average journey time in the inner area was greater than that in Wythenshawe. (Author/publisher)
Abstract