People on the Move
During the 20th century, the numbers of people and the quantities of goods on the move increased more than a hundred-fold. During the same period, the world’s total population quadrupled. We tend to spend about as much time travelling each day as people did a century ago, but today we travel much further, and much faster. In 1900 people in Europe travelled an average of about a kilometre a day, but today this figure is 40-50 kilometres.Daily travelling times and distances in Finland (2004-2005):
- 13.9 million trips made every day (2.9 trips per person per day)
- Total length of all journeys per day = 204 million kilometres
- Average total distance travelled daily = 42 km
- Average time spent travelling daily = 1h 11min
- Average distance travelled in a single trip = 15 km
- Average time taken for a single trip = 25 min
Cars increasingly popular
Most of the increase in traffic in Finland is accounted for by road traffic, and particularly cars. The shares of journeys made on foot, by bicycle or using public transport have been steadily declining. In Europe as a whole, 70-80 % of all journeys (in terms of total distances) are made by car, and in the US this figure is more than 90 %.In Finland the proportion of total distances travelled by car is significantly lower than these figures, at 58 %, as indicated in surveys conducted during the years 2004-2005. Public transport accounted for 8 % of total distances travelled, and the remaining 32 % of journeys were made on foot or by bicycles. One factor behind these figures is that in Finland most schoolchildren still walk or cycle to school.
About a third of all journeys involve daily commuting trips to workplaces, schools and colleges etc. Almost a third of journeys are made for the purposes of shopping or other necessary trips, and just over a third of all journeys are made for leisure-related reasons. Shopping trips and journeys to school tend to be shorter, while leisure-related trips are generally longer. The longest journeys are typically made for business trips and for visits to holiday homes. Many Finnish families own their own holiday homes in rural areas that may be several hours away from their homes.
