Bath & North East Somerset Travel to Work Survey Results

The Bath & North East Somerset data includes all responses from people working at participating organisations based in the Bath & North East Somerset Council area, whether they live locally or commute.

  • In 2026, there were 3,547 responses for the Bath & North East Somerset UA area. In 2025, there were 4,407 responses.
  • This year, 40 organisations based in Bath & North East Somerset UA took part in the survey.

Headline results

1. The % of people spending the majority of their time at the workplace has reduced. 72% of people say they are spending the majority of their working hours at a workplace while 25% are spending the majority of their working hours at home. In 2025 the figures were 75% and 23% respectively and in 2024 they were more similar at 72% and 26%.

Bar chart showing percentage of respondents' usual work locations from 2022 to 2026, with categories "At a workplace," "At home," "Working elsewhere," and "Other." "At a workplace" shows an increasing trend peaking at 75% in 2025 and dropping slightly to 72% in 2026. "At home" declines from 46% in 2022 to 25% in 2026; "Working elsewhere" and "Other" remain minimal throughout.

2. Hybrid working remains popular. The mean is 3.2 days/week at a workplace and 1.2 days/week at home.

Bar chart showing average number of days spent working at workplace, home, or elsewhere from 2022 to 2026. Workplace days increase from 2.5 to 3.2, home days decrease from 2.4 to 1.2, and days elsewhere remain constant at 0.2.

2.1 97% of people go into work at least 1 day a week and 65% go into work 3 or more days a week. In 2025 it was 97% and 69%.

Midweek is still when the majority of people are going into the office. Tuesday and Wednesday are the busiest days with 62% (down from 63% on Tuesdays and up from 61% on Wednesdays in 2025) and Friday is still the quietest with 47% (same as in 2025).

Bar chart showing percentage of people attending workplace by day of week from 2023 to 2026. Tuesday and Wednesday have highest attendance at 62%, while weekend days show minimal attendance below 5%, with slight increase on Thursday and Friday over recent years. Varies/no set pattern has slightly decreased from 16% to 14%.

2.2 53% of people continue to work at home at least 1 day a week (same as in 2025). 21% are working from home 3 or more days a week (up from 19% in 2025).

3. 67% of respondents are commuting by personal motorvehicle. 57% are driving alone by car (up from 55% in 2025), 9% are car sharing (up from 8% in 2025) and 1% are travelling by motorbike/moped (same as 2025).

Bar chart showing modes of travel to work from 2022 to 2026, including work from home (WFH) percentages. Personal motor vehicle use increases from 59% in 2022 to 67% in 2026, while active travel, public transport, WFH, e-travel, and other modes remain relatively stable with minor fluctuations. Active travel rates in 2026 are 15% and public transport rates are 14%.

4. 15% of respondents are commuting by active travel. This figure is slightly lower than 2025 (16%). 11% are walking and 4% are cycling into work (the figures for 2025 were 12% and 4% respectively).

5. 14% of respondents are commuting by public transport. This figure is slightly lower than 2025 (15%). 8% are taking the bus and 6% are taking the train (9% bus and 6% train in 2025).

6. 2% of respondents are working all the time from home. This is the same as in 2025 but down from 3% in 2024 and 5% in 2023. It is still much higher than pre-Covid surveys where less than 0.5% were working only from home.

7. 2% of respondents commute by e-travel (predominantly by personal e-bike). This figure has increased over previous years (1%).

8. Those commuting by train are travelling into work the least – on average, 2.4 days per week (down from 2.5 days in 2025). Those walking into work go in the most often – on average 3.8 days per week followed closely by car sharing (3.7 days), bus (3.5 days), cycling (3.4 days) and then car driver-alone (3.2 days).

9. New for 2026: almost 1 in 3 commuters combine their journey with caring responsibilities. 30% of respondents said they sometimes (12%) or always (18%) combine their commute with care-related travel such as the school run. Of these, 62% travel by car driver-alone to work, higher than the car driver-alone rate across all commuters (57%).

10. One-way journey times and one-way journey distances have remained the same in 2026. One-way journey time (mean) is 38 minutes. One-way journey distance (mean) is 12 miles.

: Bar chart comparing mean one-way journey time in minutes and journey distance in miles to work from 2022 to 2026. Journey time fluctuates slightly between 35 and 38 minutes, while journey distance decreases from 13 miles in 2022 to 11 miles in 2024 before rising to 12 miles in 2025 and 2026.

11. People who walk, cycle or scoot to work have higher journey satisfaction than those who use public transport or road-based transport (car, motorbike). People are slightly more satisfied with their journey to work than from work, this is across most travel modes. Satisfaction rates for working from home remain high at 96% (same as in 2025).

If your organisation would like to find out more about the Travel to Work Survey in Bath & North East Somerset please email: [email protected]