This document is the second of a new series of bulletins, and updates the main statistics on personal travel in Great Britain from 1996-98 to 1997-99. The 1997-99 National Travel Survey (NTS) consists of data from the latest three years of the continuous survey that began in July 1988. It sampled 5040 addresses each year from 1989 to 1999, but only about 3000 households responded in 1999. From January 1997 to December 1999, individuals in 9094 households completed a travel diary, covering all journeys over 50 yards long. The respondents gave details of journey purpose, length, mode, and time of day, and some personal information. This bulletin covers: (1) the sampling methodology used; (2) trends in personal travel; (3) how people travel; (4) why people travel; and (5) other factors affecting travel. It also gives tables of travel in different regions and reference tables of travel by mode and purpose. It lists 21 key points about British travel in 1997-99. For example, residents travelled an average of 6806 miles a year, an increase of 28% since 1985-86, mainly due to a rise in average journey length from 5.2 miles to 6.5 miles. Car travel accounted for about 80% of the total distance travelled; the proportion of primary school children taken to school by car rose from 22% to 38%. The proportion of rural households with `good' access to a bus service rose from 35% to 42%.
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