New analysis show 6 out of 10 journeys can be made on foot or by bicycle within 15 minutes
Almost 60 percent of all trips in Sweden are short enough to be made on foot or by bicycle within 15 minutes, according to a unique analysis of movement data from Telia's mobile network.
Telia and Tyréns, one of Sweden's leading consulting companies in the urban and rural development sector, have carried out an extensive analysis of movement data from Telia's mobile network, mapping where in Sweden trips were made and how long they were. The analysis is based on approximately seven billion trips made in Sweden in 2023, which corresponds to approximately 20 million trips a day.
“Trip distance estimates are often based on physical surveys or registered data, but this analysis is based on anonymized mobile network data from millions of mobile movements via our Telia Crowd Insights service,” says Christian Lewenhaupt, business developer for Crowd Insights, at Telia. “With our technology and Tyrén's expertise, we can create better conditions for municipalities and cities to create smarter travel optionsfor their residents.”
Jonas Hedlund, mobility expert at Tyréns, has been in charge of the analysis.
“Approximately 57 percent of the trips analyzed are shorter than four kilometers and can therefore be completed within a quarter of an hour on foot or by bicycle,” he says. “The fact that we can rank Sweden's fifteen-minute cities makes this study unique. Not only based on the conditions, but also thanks to the vast amounts of data that shows what the actual journey looks like.”
Fewer daily journeys longer than three miles
The proportion of journeys that are shorter than four kilometers varies within Sweden. They most commonly take place in the larger cities. But even in smaller towns, over half of all journeys are short.
Figure 1: Percentage of journeys shorter than four kilometres broken down by SKR's municipal groups.
Even though there are more short journeys made than longer ones, short trips only account for about ten percent of the total mileage.
“In rural areas, journeys are often longer than in urban areas. But if we look at Sweden as a whole, only five percent of journeys are longer than 30 kilometers. A key to reducing traffic and its emissions is transport-efficient planning, where everyday destinations and services must be close to the residents. This is even more important in rural areas,” Jonas Hedlund says.
Different results among Sweden's larger cities
The analysis also shows that Sweden's larger cities can be described as fifteen-minute cities - to varying degrees. Malmö and Stockholm are the municipalities with the most trips under four kilometers. Halmstad, Örebro and Lund follow and are thus placed just before Gothenburg, Sweden’s second largest city. If the analysis is then limited to journeys that start within the municipalities' conurbations, the proportion of short journeys is even higher.
Figure 2: Share of all journeys shorter than four kilometres in Sweden's largest municipalities.
About Telia Crowd Insights
Telia Crowd Insights analyzes anonymized and aggregated mobile network data that is adjusted to represent the entire population. This allows you to see behaviors and movement patterns in society, for example travel patterns.
This analysis therefore does not only cover work commuting or self-estimated travel as in a travel survey, but is based on all trips that has actually taken place. The method enables municipalities or regions to monitor change over time. All data is automatically anonymized and aggregated fully before use to protect personal integrity and can never be traced back to a single individual. The only thing analyzed is the movement pattern of groups, disconnected from individuals.
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