Transport enables Londoners to access employment, education, services and social activities. A reliable, affordable and sustainable transport system supports economic activity and helps reduce environmental impacts. This chapter examines how people travel around London and progress towards more active and sustainable travel.
The indicators presented are a subset of the Mayor’s Transport Strategy tracker metrics, which are used to monitor progress against the aims of the strategy. More detailed coverage of travel and transport trends in London can be found in TfL’s annual Travel in London report.
Sustainable mode share
Increasing the proportion of trips made by walking, cycling and public transport is central to reducing congestion, improving air quality and supporting healthier lives in London. This section provides indicators on how people travel in London, the proportion of trips made by sustainable modes, and how travel behaviour has changed over time.
The Mayor’s Transport Strategy set a target for 80% of trips in London to be made by walking, cycling or public transport by 2041. The proportion of total trips made by these modes steadily increased from 60.1% in 2010 to 63.6% in 2019. Following a decline during the pandemic, the mode share increased to 63.4% in 2024, still 0.2 percentage points lower than in 2019.
Demand for travel on the London Underground, bus and Transport for London Road Network (TLRN) has continued to recover following the pandemic. Towards the end of 2024 it achieved what appears to be a broadly settled position, albeit at a lower level than prior to the pandemic.
In 2024/25, London Underground demand had returned to 91% of the pre-pandemic baseline (2019/20), and bus demand was 87% of pre-pandemic levels. Demand on the TLRN was 95% of pre-pandemic levels in 2024/25, similar to the preceding years.
Different factors may explain why demand has not returned to pre-pandemic levels, including: changes in travel behaviour, more widespread adoption of hybrid working, continuing cost-of-living pressures, and operational difficulties affecting some networks. Lower overall public transport demand, and the lost growth that was previously assumed across the pandemic-affected years, have implications for progress towards the Mayor’s active travel and mode share targets.
To promote the health of Londoners, the Mayor’s Transport Strategy set a goal for all London residents to undertake at least 20 minutes of active travel per day by 2041, defined as either walking or cycling. By measuring the number of residents who report doing at least 20 minutes of walking or cycling, we can show how many are achieving minimum healthy levels of activity through active travel alone. Note, however, that this does not include other forms of physical activity, such as sport, which are additional to this measure.
This is measured using the London Travel Demand Survey (LTDS), which provides a daily snapshot of travel behaviour. It is acknowledged that a proportion of residents who are routinely active may not have travelled on the LTDS travel day (typically the day before the survey interview). Therefore, the Mayor’s Transport Strategy aim for all London residents translates to 70% of the LTDS sample of London residents achieving 20 minutes of active travel on the day they were surveyed.
Historically, the proportion of Londoners achieving at least 20 minutes of active travel per day has been relatively flat at around 40%. This fell during the pandemic largely due to the significant decline in public transport usage. In 2024/25 the proportion of Londoners achieving 20 minutes of active travel was 43%, three percentage points higher than in 2022/23 (40%). This is slightly higher than pre-pandemic, likely due to an increase in active travel as public transport demand remains lower than before the pandemic.
Safety and accessibility
London’s transport system must be safe, inclusive and accessible for everyone, regardless of age, ability or background. This section provides indicators on road safety and the accessibility of public transport.
The number of people killed or seriously injured1 on London’s roads trended downwards over the decade from 2010 to 2020. During the pandemic, reduced traffic levels led to a further decline in fatalities and serious injuries. However, 2021 and 2022 saw a reversion to numbers and patterns of injury seen prior to the pandemic, as travel demand returned.
The Mayor’s Transport Strategy sets out the ambition for reducing road casualties in London, with a target to deliver a 70% reduction (against the 2010-14 baseline) in the number of people killed or seriously injured on London’s roads by 2030.
Data for 2023 and 2024 suggests a return to the pre-pandemic trend of declining road casualties. In 2024 there was a 24 per cent reduction in the number of people killed or seriously injured compared to the 2010-14 baseline.
Improving the physical accessibility of public transport is key to creating a fully inclusive network for all. People who are older or disabled or who are travelling with luggage or young children can sometimes find it hard to get around and often face longer journeys if they are only able to use the step-free network.
The Mayor’s Transport Strategy aims to reduce this journey time differential, with a working aim of a 50% reduction from a 2016 baseline by 2041. Good progress has been made towards this target in recent years with a 43% improvement on the baseline recorded in 2025.
Reliability and quality
Reliable, affordable and high‑quality transport underpins London’s economy and daily life, enabling people to access jobs, education and services. This section includes indicators on the quality of the bus network and crowding on the rail network. Transport for London publishes data on Bus performance and Underground services performance each period.
The annual average bus network speed is used to track progress against the Mayor’s Transport Strategy’s ‘quality’ outcome. This set a target of a 10% increase in bus speeds (from a 2015 baseline) by 2030. The chart above shows the trend for this metric since 2013, indexed to the 2015 baseline.
Before the pandemic, bus speeds had been declining, but pandemic-related reductions in travel demand led to an increase in bus speeds in 2020. Due to the return of car traffic, and therefore greater congestion, the large increase in average speed seen in 2020 has fallen back. In 2025, the London-wide average bus speed was 9.1 miles per hour.
Crowding on the rail network
The Mayor’s Transport Strategy also sets an ambition to reduce the proportion of rail kilometres travelled in crowded conditions by 10-20 per cent compared to a 2016 baseline of 10.3 per cent.
This measure has proven to be highly sensitive to pandemic-associated demand fluctuations. In 2020 it effectively fell to zero but has since fluctuated at around two per cent. Post-pandemic patterns of customer demand, particularly during the peak period, are driving this reduction in crowding compared to pre-pandemic levels.
Furthermore, the introduction of the Elizabeth line provided additional capacity and is alleviating crowding on the London Underground network. Despite this progress, without further investment in capacity on our network, it is expected that crowding will increase in line with London’s growing population and economic activity levels.