How India moves: 23% prefer to walk to work, buses for long distances

Walking remains the preferred mode of travel to office for over 45 million people out of the 200 million Indians who were surveyed, according to the Indian Census 2011.

For short distances — 0 to 1 kilometre — walking is the preferred choice. To put this in perspective, the total distance covered by the 20 million people who like to walk to work is equal to walking to the moon and back 30 times.

More than 14 million people said they preferred to walk 2-5 kilometres to their workplace. But the number halved to 7 million as the distance to office increased to 6-10 km.

Yet, among all the modes of transport reported by the Census, walking remained the preferred choice, followed by motorised two-wheelers like motorcycles and scooters — a little over 5.5 million said they availed this mode of transport to reach offices. 

The analysis also suggested that as the distance to the workplace increased in India, so did the number of transport modes required to finish the journey.

Buses were the most popular choice for longer journeys to work, the analysis showed. For 11-20 km, 5 million people said they preferred buses, followed by motorised two-wheelers at over 3 million. For 21-30 km, 2.3 million preferred buses, followed by bicycles at 2.2 million. For 31-50 km, over 2.1 million people said they availed buses daily, followed by trains at 1.1 million. Finally, for workplaces that are more than 50 km away, 2.3 million said they take the bus and 1.9 million the train.

A mode-wise breakdown suggests that most (23 per cent or over 45 million) preferred to walk to office.

But walking as a mode of transport comes with its own quirks — people prefer it only for short distances, from 0 to 10 km.

After walking, bicycles are the next preferred mode of transport with 13 per cent or over 26 million using it, followed by motorised two-wheeler vehicles — 24 million. 

Further, for another 30 per cent or over 60 million people of the total Indian surveyed, the only mode of transport is ‘No travel’, throwing light to the vast, complex mobility landscape of India.  

Note: For the moon travels, figures are an estimate rather than actual travels.

This article is part of our series on how India moves, which looks at the relationship between air quality and human mobility in cities and towns.