The trends

Figure 4.1 shows the increases over the past half-century in passenger movement (measured in person-kilometres), the movement of freight (measured in tonne-kilometres) and road traffic (measured in vehicle-kilometres). It also shows the improvement in the average standard of living (measured in real gross domestic product (GDP) (£) per head), at once both the cause and the effect of the rise in traffic and transport. The data are portrayed in the form of ‘indices’, ¹ since this enables the trends to be compared despite the different units of measurement. Figure 4.1 The growth of personal travel, freight, traffic and real GDP per head (1953–2009) https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-p.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9780203436066/6f4ba6d4-7f2c-4079-87d5-7e6c8bb38eee/content/fig4_1_B.tif" xmlns:xlink="https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"/> Source: Department for Transport, Transport Statistics for Great Britain (2011), tables TSGB0101 (person-km), TSGB0499 (tonne-km) and TRA 9901 (veh-km); Social Trends #39 (2009), p. 64, table XX.