York’s transport picture combines substantial road traffic with strong bus, rail, walking and cycling use. The York Local Transport Strategy 2024-2040 records about 450,000 vehicle trips per day in 2019, while the city’s buses carried 13.2 million passenger trips in 2023. More recent figures show 14.6 million local bus passenger journeys in 2023-24 and more than 4.5 million Park & Ride journeys in 2024.
The figures below cover different years and measures. Some are observed or estimated baselines, while others are forecasts or policy targets. Road traffic figures from the Department for Transport are local-authority estimates in million vehicle miles; small-area estimates may be less robust than counted observations.
Contents
- Overall travel demand and road traffic
- Bus services and Park & Ride
- Rail travel and station access
- Walking, cycling and active travel
- Travel to work and car ownership
- Transport targets and public support
- York’s wider network and visitor movement
Overall travel demand and road traffic in York
York recorded about 450,000 vehicle trips per day in 2019, according to the York Local Transport Strategy 2024-2040. Under its do-nothing scenario, the strategy forecasts about 510,000 daily vehicle trips in 2033 and about 550,000 in 2040. It also projects that average travel time would increase by 14% between 2019 and 2033 if no change is made.
The historical pattern is not uniform across the network. City-centre vehicle trips fell 26% between 1991 and 2019, while vehicle trips on the A64 increased 64% over the same period. This points to a shift in where traffic is concentrated rather than a simple city-wide rise or fall.
The Department for Transport’s York road traffic statistics estimated 846.4 million vehicle miles on York roads in 2025, including all motor vehicles. Cars and taxis accounted for 676.4 million of those estimated vehicle miles. The corresponding all-motor-vehicle estimates were 827.1 million vehicle miles in 2024 and 823.3 million in 2023.
| Measure | Figure | Period or status |
|---|---|---|
| Daily vehicle trips | 450,000 | 2019 recorded baseline |
| Daily vehicle trips | 510,000 | 2033 do-nothing forecast |
| Daily vehicle trips | 550,000 | 2040 do-nothing forecast |
| All-motor-vehicle road traffic | 846.4 million vehicle miles | 2025 DfT estimate |
| Cars and taxis | 676.4 million vehicle miles | 2025 DfT estimate |
These measures should not be treated as interchangeable: daily trips count movements, whereas vehicle miles measure the distance travelled by vehicles across the local-authority area.
Bus services and Park & Ride in York
York’s buses carried 13.2 million passenger trips in 2023, equivalent to about 36,000 per day, according to the transport strategy. Park & Ride accounted for 4 million of those 13.2 million bus trips. Bus trips increased 65% between 2000 and 2019.
The City of York Council’s Park & Ride figures show further growth in the latest reported period. York Park & Ride recorded more than 4.5 million journeys in 2024, its busiest year since 2017, and almost 1 million more journeys than in 2023. December 2024 alone produced nearly 500,000 journeys. That was 3.5% above the previous December record, set in 2016.
The council estimated that December 2024 Park & Ride boarding prevented more than 61,700 cars from travelling into central York. The service operates from 6 sites, according to the council’s Transport Services summary.
Across all local bus services, York averaged 70.6 local bus journeys per resident in 2023-24, ranking eighth among English local authorities in the council’s comparison. York’s bus trips were 35% higher in 2023-24 than in 2021-22. Local bus passenger journeys reached 14.6 million in 2023-24, up from 13.2 million in 2022-23.
The 2023 figure in the strategy and the 2023-24 figure in the council’s progress reporting use different reporting periods and should be read as separate measures. Together, they show the scale of York’s bus network and the importance of Park & Ride within it.
Rail travel and station access
York station recorded 8.9 million rail trips in the transport strategy’s 2023 evidence summary. Poppleton station recorded 72,000 rail trips in the same summary. The strategy identifies Poppleton and the proposed Haxby station as two anchors for connected walking, cycling and bus networks.
Access to York station is already strongly weighted towards sustainable modes. The Council Plan Progress Report for 2025 records that 78.7% of customers arrived at York station by sustainable modes in 2024, compared with 78% in 2023.
The transport strategy sets a target of a 50% increase in bus and train travel by 2030. Rail therefore sits within a wider plan to connect stations with local bus services and active-travel routes, rather than functioning only as a long-distance travel option.
Walking, cycling and active travel
About 10% of all trips in York are made by bicycle and about 20% are made on foot, according to the transport strategy’s 2024 evidence summary. A separate council summary, Our Transport Services, says around 1 in 7 York residents cycles to work. The commuting figure is distinct from the all-purpose trip shares.
The draft Local Cycling and Walking Infrastructure Plan background evidence report reports walking or cycling for any purpose among York adults in the 2021-2022 Department for Transport travel survey evidence:
- 81.8% did so at least monthly.
- 75.2% did so at least weekly.
- 55.0% did so at least three times weekly.
- 41.3% did so at least five times weekly.
These frequencies cover walking or cycling for any purpose, not exclusively commuting. They therefore describe general adult travel behaviour rather than the share of journeys made by active travel.
The strategy targets a 2-fold increase in active-travel trips by 2030. The target builds on a city where walking and cycling already account for substantial shares of trips, but where the frequency survey and the trip-share estimates answer different questions.
Travel to work and car ownership
About 35% of York’s working residents work at home or mostly at home, according to the strategy’s 2024 evidence summary. York had about 87,500 cars in 2024, and about 10% of those cars were electric or hybrid. The same summary says fewer than 50% of households own a car in many areas of York.
The historic commuting baseline is from the 2011 Census. The One city for all, 2023 to 2027 report recorded 83,396 York residents aged 16 and over in employment commuting within York, representing 74.6% of that group. It also recorded 25,734 commuters travelling into York from authorities outside the city.
Infrastructure has changed since that baseline. The same council plan reported 110 City of York electric-vehicle charging points in its 2023 council plan baseline and said 40% of buses operating in York were ultra-low-emission electric or hybrid. The Council Plan Progress Report for 2025 recorded 103 council electric-vehicle recharging points in the second quarter of 2025-26.
The charging-point figures are reported for different periods and should not be read as a continuous annual series without further detail. They do show that charging provision and lower-emission buses are tracked alongside car ownership and vehicle technology.
Transport targets and public support
York’s transport strategy sets several quantified targets. It requires a 20% reduction in road miles driven by 2030, a 2-fold increase in active-travel trips by 2030 and a 50% increase in bus and train travel by 2030. It also anticipates that 90% of York’s car and van fleet will be electric or hybrid by 2040.
The strategy’s climate policy requires a 71% reduction in transport carbon emissions to reach net zero by 2030. These are policy targets, not measurements of current performance or forecasts of what will happen without intervention.
Public responses to the council’s 2023-24 transport consultation were recorded among online respondents between November 2023 and February 2024. Support was reported at the following levels:
| Consultation priority | Support among online respondents |
|---|---|
| Improving accessibility | 90% |
| Improving public transport | 88% |
| Improving walking, wheeling and cycling | 85% |
| Effective maintenance and enforcement | 83% |
| Reducing car dependency | 78% |
| Safeguarding the environment | 74% |
These percentages describe the online respondent group and should not be presented as a poll of every York resident.
York’s wider transport network and visitor movement
York’s transport demand extends beyond the city boundary. About one-third of vehicle trips in York start or end outside the City of York Council area, while 1 in 5 vehicle trips passes through without stopping in the city. The strategy’s 2024 transport evidence also estimates about 8 million visitor trips to York each year.
Area-wide traffic excluding the A64 reached 2.03 million vehicles between 7am and 7pm in 2024-25, according to the Council Plan Progress Report for 2025. This is a time-window traffic measure, so it is not directly comparable with the daily vehicle-trip forecasts in the transport strategy or with DfT vehicle-mile estimates.
Taken together, the figures describe a city with several overlapping travel patterns: local trips, regional commuting, through traffic, rail access and visitor movement. The strategy’s forecasts, targets and measured baselines therefore need to be read with their geography, time period and status in view.