Official Statistics

Outcome of user engagement on proposed changes to Daily domestic transport use by mode statistical series

Updated 15 October 2026

Applies to England, Scotland and Wales

About this release

As part of efforts to ensure continued relevance of Department for Transport (DfT) statistics, DfT reviewed and identified changes to improve the quality and relevance of the Daily domestic transport use by mode publication. This publication shows daily usage of selected domestic transport modes in Great Britain on a monthly basis.

Between Wednesday 10 June and Thursday 16 July 2026, the department ran a user engagement exercise to understand the impact of implementing these changes. This document summarises what feedback was received and the department’s resulting decisions upon review.

The department will implement the changes to the publication in early 2027.

Introduction

The Daily domestic transport use by mode publication was created to provide a timely indication of the demand on the transport network during the COVID-19 pandemic. At that time, the methodology adopted was designed to meet an exceptional set of circumstances. It balanced quality, stability, and comparability across the transport modes that are presented in the publication, against the timeliness of releasing the information to help users understand rapid changes in travel behaviour. 

5 years on from the initial publication of the series, and in line with the Code of Practice for Statistics, the department has reviewed the analysis and methodology to ensure the publication continues to meet current user needs as well as possible. This review has identified improvements to better the quality and long-term value the publication offers. 

Summary

Proposals

The department proposed the following changes to enhance quality and relevance:

• re-indexing all transport modes in the publication to the same baseline
• including a separate series which provides the year-on-year change, based on the re-indexed series
• calculating the index for all transport modes using rolling 7-day averages
• removing five transport modal series from the analysis to balance value and quality
• changing reported comparison periods in the HTML bulletin’s commentary to be consistent across modes

These improvements would present the analysis on a more consistent and coherent basis, allowing users to:

• conduct cross-modal comparisons with greater ease
• interpret and understand the analysis with greater ease
• conduct additional analysis with greater freedom

Further information regarding the changes, including more detailed explanations and examples, is provided in the Planned changes to the Daily domestic transport use by mode publication, which accompanied the user survey that was circulated.

Feedback

The survey received 7 responses in total, including 3 responses from organisations.

Respondents were asked how the proposed changes would impact them and how they use the publication. Where respondents were not sure about the impact, or expressed a negative impact, they could provide context and examples.

The majority of responses were supportive of the proposed changes, expressing that, if implemented, they would have a positive impact on the responders’ use and needs. However, the concerns that were raised related to:

• the lack of comparison of latest usage against a pre-COVID-19 baseline
• a shortened time series
• dropping the motor vehicles breakdown, and only publishing the total motor vehicle series

Decisions

Prior to conducting the user engagement, the department conducted extensive research and testing when developing the proposed changes. All changes were reviewed against the expectations and requirements set out in the Code of Practice for Statistics and the department’s own standards to ensure they added value and improved user experience when engaging with the publication. As such, the department was confident that these changes would deliver an improved product but wanted to understand whether users agreed.

The department has considered the feedback received and has concluded that the proposals, with the exception of removing the motor vehicles breakdown (which consists of cars, light commercial vehicles and heavy goods vehicles), will improve value to the publication, make it easier to interpret and analyse, whilst maintaining relevance.

The department will therefore implement the proposals, except for the removal of the motor vehicles breakdown, in early 2027.

The department acknowledges there is still a demand for comparing latest usage against pre-pandemic levels. As such, the department and other bodies, such as the Office of Rail and Road (ORR) and Transport for London (TfL) publish analysis that provides this comparison, which can be accessed below:

• TfL’s Network Demand Dashboard
• Department for Transport’s Bus statistics series
• Department for Transport’s Road traffic statistics series
• ORR’s passenger rail usage series

Historical versions of the publication will remain publicly available via the UK National Archives and GOV.UK for users who wish to see how the pandemic affected transport usage against pre-pandemic levels.

Current use of the publication

The survey first asked users about the value and relevance of the publication in its current form.

Feedback

When asked how well the publication currently meets their needs, all responses were positive, where it either was “very good” or “good” at meeting their needs.

This was consistent with how the analysis presented met user needs for certain use cases, where responses were either “very good” or “good”. The use cases that were asked about in the survey covered providing daily data, short- and long-term trends, and comparisons with a COVID-19 pandemic and pre-pandemic context.

Those who responded reaffirmed the value and demand for a product that provides timely information on the transport network.

Decisions

The department will continue to produce the publication, engaging with users to ensure changes continue to meet and improve the value of the series.

Re-indexing the series to a post pandemic year

Proposals

Respondents answered how re-indexing and changing the baseline would impact their needs and use. Currently, the baselines differ between the transport modes that are presented in the publication because suitable pre-pandemic comparators were not available for all modes when the publication was created. The proposed re-index will address this by using a consistent post-pandemic baseline across all the modes.

Feedback

3 respondents expressed re-indexing the series would have a (large) positive impact on their needs, whilst 2 expressed a (large) negative impact. The other responses were evenly split between “no impact” and “do not know”.

Those who expressed the change would have a negative impact were concerned that the time series would be shortened and conducting comparisons between latest usage against a pre-pandemic baseline would be lost.

Decisions

Under this proposal, where available, the new analysis would be backdated to cover the same period as the current publication. As such, the new analysis’ time series would not be shortened because of the changes.

The department acknowledges that re-indexing to a post-pandemic baseline will make pre-pandemic comparisons less prominent and that there is still demand for comparing latest usage against pre-pandemic conditions. However, the department has assessed that reindexing the series to a post-pandemic baseline:

• reflects the post-pandemic levels of usage which, as can be seen in the current publication, has settled at a level that is below pre-pandemic usage for most transport modes (except for the all motor vehicles series)
• adds greater value and improves the quality of the analysis for user needs in the long run

Under this proposal, users can:

• still conduct analysis to see how domestic modes of transport have been affected by the pandemic
• monitor recovery in transport use
• see how latest usage compares
• compare usage across modes with greater ease

Altogether, this ensures the publication retains its relevancy in the long run. For pre-pandemic analysis, this is still published by the department and other bodies, as referenced in the Summary section.

Publishing a year-on-year series

Proposals

Respondents answered how including a separate series that presented year-on-year changes, presented as percentage point differences, would impact their needs and use. These year-on-year changes are currently provided in the HTML bulletin that is published, based off the index series, but only for the motor traffic and bus (Great Britain, excluding London) series. This proposal expands this analysis to all modes, comparing against the equivalent day in the previous year, daily.

Feedback

3 respondents expressed the addition of a year-on-year series would have a (large) positive impact on their needs, whilst 1 expressed a negative impact. The remaining responses stated it would have “no impact” on their needs.

Those who expressed that the change would have a negative impact were concerned that they would no longer be able to compare latest usage against a pre-pandemic baseline.

Decisions

The department has concluded that publishing a year-on-year series, based on and in addition to the indexed series, will add value to the publication. The year-on-year series will start from the beginning of the re-indexed series, rather than being backdated to provide pre-pandemic comparisons. This reflects the publication’s focus on current transport demand following COVID-19 and is consistent with the department’s approach to re-indexing the series. The series will also provide greater clarity and an alternative measure of transport usage over time.

Presenting daily indexed figures as rolling 7-day averages

Proposals

Currently, not all transport modes are presented consistently. Presenting all series as 7-day rolling averages would provide a clearer picture of the general trend by reducing daily noise.

Feedback

3 respondents said the presenting the daily figures as 7-day rolling averages as having a positive impact on their needs, whilst 2 expressed a negative impact. The remaining 2 responses stated it would have “no impact” or did not know the impact on their needs respectively.

Those who expressed the change would have a negative impact voiced the value of being able to see the impact of single-day events, like strike action, and compare latest usage against a pre-pandemic baseline.

Decisions

Whilst presenting the figures as rolling 7-day averages will remove some of the daily variation, seasonal and weekly trends, including one-off daily events that impact national demand on transport usage (such as strike days) will still be visible in the analysis. More localised events, such as strike action on public transport in a local authority, tend to be masked by the national demand on the transport network, regardless of whether the daily figures in this publication are presented as rolling 7-day averages or not.

When the department was exploring how better to improve the quality and consistency of the analysis, ensuring seasonal and weekly trends and events that impact national demand are still visible in the analysis was a key criterion. This was tested by comparing the 7-day rolling average series against 2 other series: the non-indexed daily figures and a series that applied weighted moving averages to the daily figures. The department concluded that variations, such as season trends and the impact of single-day events, are still sufficiently visible within the 7-day rolling average series.

The department has concluded that presenting the figures as 7-day rolling averages adds value to the publication. The value of not using a rolling average, and retaining the daily variation, is outweighed by having a consistent metric that allows for cross-modal analysis and presenting a clearer picture of seasonal trends over time.

Removing select transport modes from the series

Proposals

Respondents were asked how removing the following series from the publication would impact their needs and use:

• motor vehicles breakdown: cars, light commercial vehicles and heavy goods vehicles
• National Rail excluding the Elizabeth line
• cycling

To ensure the analysis presented remains relevant and accurate, and to balance the Code of Practice for Statistics’ principles of value and quality, the department proposed removing these series from the publication.

Feedback

4 respondents said that removing these series would have a (mostly large) negative impact on their needs. Of the remaining responses, 2 stated it would have “no impact” and 1 did not know the impact on their needs.

Those who expressed the change would have a negative impact voiced the value and specific use-cases, such as using the motor vehicle breakdown for an indicative assessment of timely traffic, trade and freight flows. The National Rail, excluding Elizabeth line series helps users assess recovery across the wider network, as the Elizabeth line’s strong performance can influence overall National trends.

Decisions

Motor vehicles breakdown

Following the user feedback, the department will retain the motor vehicle breakdown component of the road traffic index, which provides figures split into the vehicle classifications: cars, light commercial vehicles and heavy goods vehicles.

These statistics are based on data collected from the department’s network of Automatic Traffic Counters (ATCs) across Great Britain. The ATCs classify vehicles into categories using a methodology based on vehicle characteristics. The algorithms for classifying vehicle types are continually developed to ensure that vehicle classification is as accurate as possible. Work is currently in progress to implement an updated vehicle classification methodology which will improve the accuracy of vehicle classification and ensure the statistics continue to provide a robust measure of road traffic by vehicle type. Going forward, the Road Traffic index will draw on this new methodology as part of retaining the motor vehicle breakdown within this publication.

National Rail excluding the Elizabeth line

The department acknowledges that the National Rail excluding Elizabeth line series has provided value to some users, particularly in helping to distinguish underlying trends in National Rail demand from the impact of the Elizabeth line. This has been useful when assessing post-pandemic recovery, including highlighting differences in recovery rates across regions and parts of the rail network.

However, the primary purpose of the publication is to provide a timely, high-level picture of current transport demand across modes. The Elizabeth line is now an established part of the National Rail network and post-pandemic travel demand has largely stabilised. The department has therefore assessed that maintaining a separate National Rail excluding Elizabeth line series provides limited additional insight relative to the complexity it adds to the publication.

Removing the series will help simplify the publication and ensure it remains focused on presenting the most representative measures of current transport use. Users interested in more detailed analysis of regional or mode-specific trends will continue to be able to access a range of other rail statistics published by the department and industry partners.

Cycling 

The department will proceed with removing the cycling series from the publication given the feedback received did not express concern over doing so. The historical series will still be accessible via the UK National Archives.

Publishing periods

Currently, the HTML bulletin includes a table which shows the latest transport usage by mode for the latest publishing period. These publishing periods differ due to data lags which are detailed in the bulletin and accompanying methodology note.

Proposals

Respondents were asked how changing these time periods to be the same across all modes of transport, specifically to become the latest complete month for which data on all modes is available, would impact their needs and use. This would make the presentation of these time periods consistent across transport modes, supporting clearer cross-modal comparisons and interpretation.

This change in time periods for comparison would only affect the commentary aspect of the release, as the publication currently stands. Data will still be included up to the most recent day possible, even though this will differ across each transport mode due to the data lags, but the commentary will include a focus on the latest period for which data on all modes is available. The latest data will still be available in the ODS and CSV tables and visualised in the bulletin.

Feedback 

4 respondents said that changing the publishing period would have no impact on their needs, and one response did not know what impact it would have. The remaining 2 responses stated it would have a “negative impact”.

Those who said the change would have a negative impact were concerned with the proposal to delay the publication day.

Decisions

The department will change these comparison periods, referenced in the bulletin’s commentary, to be consistent across all modes of transport.

The department is assured to implement this proposal as it would not affect the timing of the publication, which will remain monthly, the main concern from user feedback.

Contact us

If you have any questions around the implementation of the changes to the publication, or other feedback for the department’s consideration, use the below contact details to get in touch.

Publications, dissemination and Transport Statistics Great Britain

Email transport.statistics@dft.gov.uk

Media enquiries 0300 7777 878