ABSTRACT
Introduction This chapter provides a starting point for more detailed later analysis by examining long-run trends in everyday travel behaviour. Although as outlined in Chapter 2 national-level data on long-term trends in everyday mobility are limited, there is some information on the journey to work from the 1920s and much more data on daily mobility and travel from the 1960s. First, these national-level data sets are reviewed and main trends identified. More detailed analysis of journeys for specific purposes is mostly left for later chapters. Second, we focus on the headline results from our study of everyday mobility in two towns from the 1940s to the present. We compare these data with National Travel Survey information and explain differences between the data sets. This aggregate analysis provides a context for the more detailed examinations of mobility for different reasons that follow in later chapters.
