Planes, trains and automobiles the preferred choices of travel

Walking has taken another backwards step with the publication of official statistics showing that Britons are making far fewer journeys by foot than a generation ago. Despite official advertising campaigns urging people to stride out for their health, the Government’s annual transport survey showed that walking was declining.

David Haslam, the clinical director of the National Obesity Forum, said that he was “not surprised” by the decline in walking and cycling.

Cycling also declined over the 30 years by 42 per cent, from 51 miles to 36. Car drivers drove twice as much, resulting in the average person travelling by car for 5,746 miles a year. Between 1989 and 2005, the number of people flying around the UK – a particular irritation to environmentalists – almost trebled from 4 to 11 per cent.

The campaign group Transport 2000 described the figures in the survey, which was based on diaries kept by 8,400 householders, as “depressing reading”.

The Independent