South Gloucestershire Travel to Work Survey Results

The South Gloucestershire data includes all responses from people working at participating organisations based in the South Gloucestershire Council area, whether they live locally or commute in.

  • In 2026, there were 8,388 responses for the South Glos UA area. In 2025, there were 8025 responses.
  • This year, 69 organisations based in South Gloucestershire UA took part in the survey – 52 of these also took part in 2025, 11 were new to the survey and 6 came back after taking a break.

Headline results

1. The % of people spending the majority of their time at the workplace has stayed the same. In both 2026 and 2025, 71% of people said they are spending the majority of their working hours at a workplace while 27% are spending the majority of their working hours at home. In 2024, the figures were 57% and 40% respectively and in 2023, they were 62% and 35%.

Bar chart showing percentages of usual work locations from 2022 to 2026, with categories: at a workplace, at home, working elsewhere, and other. Data reveals a rising trend for workplace work from 53% in 2022 to 71% in 2025 and 2026, while home working declines from 35% in 2022 to 27% in 2025 and 2026; working elsewhere and other categories remain minimal.

2. Hybrid working remains popular. The mean is 3.1 days/week at a workplace and 1.6 days/week at home (3.1 and 1.5 days in 2025).

Bar chart showing average number of days spent working per week at workplace, home, or elsewhere from 2022 to 2026. Data indicates stable workplace attendance around 3 days, a decline in home working from 2.3 days in 2022 to 1.6 days in 2026, and days spent working elsewhere at 0.2 days.

2.1 95% of people go into work at least 1 day a week and 67% go into work 3 or more days a week. This is the same as 2025.

Midweek is still when the majority of people are going into the office. Tuesday remains the busiest day with 69% (down slightly from 70% in 2025) and Friday remains the quietest with 35% (down from 37% in 2025 and up from 29% in 2024).

Bar chart showing workplace attendance by day of week for years 2023 to 2026, with colour-coded bars for each year Tuesday has highest attendance at 69%, with Friday (35%) and weekends the lowest (1%), and "Varies/no set pattern" remains steady at 11%.

2.2 69% of people continue to work at home at least 1 day a week (this is up from 65% in 2025). 24% are working from home 3 or more days a week, same as 2025. This pattern varies across different sectors.

3. 72% of respondents are commuting by personal motorvehicle. 64% are driving alone by car (up from 63% in 2025), 7% are car sharing (same as 2025) and 1% are travelling by motorbike/moped (same as 2025).

Bar chart showing how people normally travel to work from 2022 to 2026, with data segmented by mode clusters including personal motor vehicle, active travel, public transport, work from home (WFH), e-travel, and other. Personal motor vehicle remains the dominant mode at 72%, active travel steady at 14%, public transport (9%) and WFH (4%) show slight declines, while e-travel and other modes have minimal usage below 2%.

4. 14% of respondents are commuting by active travel. This figure is the same as 2025. 5.5% are walking and 8.1% are cycling into work (the figures for 2025 were 6% and 8%).

5. 9% of respondents are commuting by public transport. This is the same as 2025. 6% are taking the bus and 3% are taking the train (same as 2025).

6. 4% of respondents are working all the time from home. This is the same as 2025 and down slightly from 5% in 2024. It still remains 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 is the same as in 2025.

8. Those commuting by train are travelling into work the least – on average, 2.5 days per week (down from 2.7 days in 2025). Those walking are going into work the most, on average 3.9 days per week, followed closely by cycling (3.6 days), car sharing (3.5 days), bus (3.4 days) and car driver-alone (3.1 days).

9. New for 2026: 1 in 4 commuters combine their journey with caring responsibilities. 25% of respondents said they sometimes (11%) or always (14%) combine their commute with care-related travel such as the school run. Of these, 76% travel by car driver-alone to work, higher than the car driver-alone rate across all commuters (64%).

10. One-way journey times and journey distances to work increased in 2026. One-way journey time in Minutes (Mean) is 38 minutes compared to 36 minutes in 2025. One-way journey distance in Miles (Mean) is 15 miles compared to 14 miles in 2025.

Bar chart comparing mean one-way journey time in minutes and journey distance in miles to work from 2022 to 2026. Journey time shows an increase from 36 minutes in 2022 to a peak of 41 minutes in 2024 before dropping to 38 minutes in 2026, while journey distance remains relatively stable around 14 to 17 miles. The average distance travelled in 2026 is 15 miles.

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 have decreased slightly from 96% in 2025 but remain high at 95% in 2026.

If your organisation would like to find out more about the Annual Travel to Work Survey in South Gloucestershire please email:  [email protected]