A new survey, carried out by Privilege Car Insurance, has been looking into driving habits, behaviours and timings, and while the headline of “We spend nearly two years in our car” is a stretch (we’d have to be driving for nearly 61 years), there are some fascinating figures revealed.
Typically, the average time spent in our cars per year is 293 hours, although if you live in Plymouth, that figure rises to around 416 hours, or just over 17 straight days, Brighton drivers spend the least amount of time driving – 232 hours.
Perhaps the most shocking insight is that 33% of drivers said that time alone in their car offers them some much welcomed respite from their children. (Although if you’re a parent, maybe that statistic isn’t such shocking news).
The 63-hour commute
However, look a little deeper at some of the figures and you’d have to question the veracity of them; we typically spend 63 hours commuting each year, which works out to just under an hour and a quarter weekly, or less than fifteen minutes each day (assuming a 5-day working week, there and back). Does that sound right?
With that said, if the figures for the average commute are to be believed, it is possible that it’s a reflection on modern life, and the technology that now allows us to work digitally, or remotely; why spend an hour each day commuting to work when all you need is an internet connection, laptop and a decent cup of something warm? Personally speaking, I haven’t commuted to a single place of work for over ten years.
For many of us, the car can be seen as our own private sanctuary, which is perhaps why 67% of drivers confess to singing as loudly as they can while driving, or spending nearly three and a half weeks swearing or shouting. Perhaps that’s partly down to spending five weeks searching for a parking spot?
And when it comes to driving companions, nearly half of the respondents said their partner was their favourite person to have in the car, but if you’re a dad, there’s sad news – just 5% preferred to have their dad in the car with them while driving.
Naming your car
If you believe that your car has its own personality, there’s a chance that you’ve given him or her, a name – 4.7 million drivers in the UK do. The most popular choices are Poppy, Dolly and … The Beast.
To an extent, a car’s name could be dictated by the registration number, but cherished registrations are seemingly gaining in popularity – in 2017, we spent £111 million on private plates. I recently attended a Ferrari press day at Silverstone circuit, out of the 100+ privately owned cars there, around five of them had a regular registration number.
Top ten activities
According to Privilege, then ten biggest drains on our time when driving are:
- Commuting to work – 63 hours every year
- Driving to meet friends and family – 35 hours per year
- Getting to the supermarket – 33 hours
- Driving for household errands – 32 hours per year
- Heading to shopping centres – 24 hours each year
- Driving friends and family around – 21 hours
- Taking kids to ‘activities’ – 14 hours per year
- Taking kids to social events – 13 hours
- Heading to the gym or keep-fit classes – 12 hours a year
- The dreaded school run – 11 hours a year
Of course there are other, more random drains – we spend 8.4 hours a year programming satellite-navigation systems, and nearly nine hours (8.7) each year getting lost.
It’s clear that cars & transportation are playing an increasingly important part of our lives, and while we may complain that driving is becoming more of a chore rather than a pleasurable pastime, there’s still 59% of British drivers that believe driving offers a great opportunity for some thinking time, and just over half of us (52%) are thankful for a break from the pervasive nature of the mobile phone.
Charlotte Fielding, head of Privilege Car Insurance, said: “This research has shown what a significant amount of our lives is being spent in our cars – who knew how much time we spent driving to work, or simply going to and from the supermarket for example?
“Whether getting from ‘A to B’ or enjoying our own space and time, there’s no doubt we spend a considerable amount of time in our cars.
“It is, therefore, important that we take care of ourselves and other road users by driving safely and remembering to consider everyone else on the roads.”
Are these statistics surprising? Do you think that the commuting time is much longer? Are you one of the 67% that confesses to singing as loudly as they can? Let us know in the comments.
Amazed at how low is this figure. It cannot be right. I have just retired, and i know of no one whose commute comes close to 15 minutes. After many years I got my commute down to 80 minutes by moving (great) after decades of a daily commute of just under 120 mins. That means i did the average yearly commute in around 3 weeks?! This explained my annoyance at congestion and the terrible effect it had on my mood. There were many where I worked who had a longer commute then me.
Ian, I’ll cheese you off, I’ve never taken more than 10 mins to get to work ever. When I was an engineer it was 10 minute commute. I’m now a hgv driver and it only takes me 6 mins to get to work, then I get paid for being stuck in everyone else’s commute.
I will also ‘cheese’ Ian off, my longest commute was about 30 minutes which I did for around 2 years, then 20 minutes for about 13 years and finally 10 minutes on on a push bike fo some 22 years before retiring, so average 15 minutes. , all to the same place of work, moving home changing the distance.
Too many people think that a commute is dormatory town to city forgetting that many of us live in a rural location and travel within that area, so traffic stress is virtually unknown.
My final journey on the bike was 200 yards to canal towpath, through open countryside right to the main entrance to the works, just across a road from leaving the towpath.
I am cheesed off – I once worked out how many months I had spent on the M62…. I had to take my laptop and phone to work – once I forgot my laptop and had to drive an extra 2 hours to get it,, but they would not let us work from home! I’m afraid most of comments support the view as to how far off this figure is. The office I worked in had one person with a 10 minute commute, but about half had at least 2 hours each way
When I worked, (I’m retired now) I lived 28 miles from my work. I had no car so I cycled to work. My children walked to school every day just as I did. This was in the 1970’s through to the 1990’s. Not the extreme dark ages.
These stats look totally off for anyone that commutes by car.
The figures probably include people that have zero hour commute by car and use train/bus/cycle/walk instead.
Comparing to the TUC figures for 2017:
Drivers spend 52 minutes on the road to and from work a day
Rail commuters an average of 131 minutes a day
Bus at 79 minutes per day
Cyclists 44 minutes
Walkers 29 minutes
I wonder if the way the average was calculated is to blame here? If you ask 100 drivers how long their commute is and work out the average it will be much lower than asking 100 people who actually commute to work. If a significant number of the people surveyed don’t actually drive to work (so their response will be zero minutes), that will skew the average figure.
My commute is 90 minutes one way (assuming no traffic problems), which I do 3-4 times a week. I used to do it 5 times a week, which gives a total of 300 hours a year.
Too low, having spent the last 10 years of my career driving an hour and a half each way to work 3 hrs a day 15 hrs a week 60 hrs a MONTH. Before that I spent 8 years taking a train journey that lasted 25 minutes each way, not including walk to and from station
This average is not right, I have a short commute (Compared to most of my work colleagues) 20-25 mins each way, and I only work 4 days a week, but this still means I spend around 150hrs a year commuting. And seriously, 11hrs a YEAR on the DREADED school run, If that was the case it would not be considered DREADED.
I would suggest this survey was done in a town center, on a weekday, and surprisingly, most people that were asked did not commute to work (hence being in town on a weekday).
Sounds like nonsense – if kids are at school for 3 x 12 week terms, that’s 180 days. 11 hours spent on the school run is 5 minutes per day. 2.5 minutes each way. Even the most hardened car supporter would consider that they maybe should be walking.
Or perhaps people are just poor at estimating?
Just goes to show why you shouldn’t let non-mathematicians loose on statistics. I imagine 15 mins a day includes all the people who work from home or don’t travel by car, so what it actually is is anybody’s guess.