Travel to work

What does this graph show?

The graph shows the main modes of public transport used by low-paid Londoners to commute to work. Around half of working people living in London use public transport as their principal method of travelling to work. Here we define low pay as an hourly wage less than the London Living Wage.

60% of low-paid workers in London who use public transport use the bus to commute
to work and 40% use trains or the Underground. Those using the bus are more likely to
be women than men.

Additional information

Although not shown in the graph above, a high proportion of low-paid workers (around 40%) use cars and taxis to commute to work. London Travel Watch highlighted a number of issues to do with the grey market when low-paid workers rely on cars and taxis, especially unlicensed taxis and poorly maintained and uninsured vehicles.

The majority of jobs are in Inner London, both low paid and well paid. But most people
work in the same part of London as they live.

Nevertheless, low-paid people do travel into Inner London from Outer London in
substantial numbers. We estimate from the Annual Population Survey that around
160,000 manual and low-skilled workers, who tend to be among the lowest paid, travel
to Inner London from Outer London every day. Around half of low-paid workers spend a
minimum of one hour commuting daily.

Data used

APS, 2009 and 3 quarters of LFS, 2008

Indicator last updated: 25 April 2012