In 2021, the National Statistics Office in collaboration with Transport Malta (TM) launched the fourth National Household Travel Survey (NHTS).

The NSO explained that the survey revolved around a specific Travel Day which was selected to be Wednesday, the 17th of November 2021. This day was selected by Transport Malta to represent a typical day of travel across Malta and Gozo.

As regards, bus travel in Gozo, the survey found that the the lowest proportion of bus trips were made by users residing in Gozo (6.6%).

Results also reveal that the top concern of persons residing in Gozo was that the bus takes too long to reach its destination, followed by the bus not being punctual, while the least cited concern was that the bus is uncomfortable.

The NSO said that these concerns were prevalent among males and by people who are between 25 and 44 years of age.

27,635 people in Gozo had access to a car, the highest proportion of that figure was the 25-44 age group at 10,448.

The Survey’s other salient points in Malta and Gozo are:

• The total number of persons over the age of 14 who travelled amounted to 255,232, representing a share of 57.7 per cent, with a total of 638,456 trips;

• The time bracket during which most trips started was between 06:00 and 09:00 with a total of 218,360 trips;

• The most common trip purpose was that of commuting (42.2%), followed by trips whose purpose was going to or escorting someone to a place of education (11.6%) and shopping (9.3%);

• Education and escort education trips were highest in Imsida with 10,810 trips;

• Birkirkara was the top destination for work related trips registering 12,186 trips;

• Mosta was the top locality for shopping and personal errand trips with 7,682 trips;

• For going home trip purpose, Mosta was also the locality that registered the most trips with 8,780 trips;

• The private vehicle was the most used means of transport at 84.3 per cent of all trips, followed by walking (7.0%) and bus (5.2%);

• Persons who made use of a private vehicle amounted to 220,532, the majority of whom were males (57.1%) and were in the 25 – 44 age bracket (45.1%);

• The number of bus users was of 20,465 who were predominantly females (51.2%) and 40.5 per cent were of 15 to 24 years of age.

2. The main concern of persons residing in districts in the Malta region on public transport is mainly that buses are not punctual.

4. The passenger car was the main mode of transport used prior and during the COVID-19 pandemic while the use of public transport decreased during the pandemic.

This particular day for the survey was chosen as there were no national events, national holidays or other out-of-the-ordinary occurrences such as school closures, the NSO said. The weather on Travel Day was favourable to normal travel patterns, with a temperature high of 20° and a low of 18° Celsius, with no rainfall and southwest winds at an average wind speed of 11mph.

There were no major roadworks carried out during Travel Day, except for those in the town of Luqa in the Southern Harbour district.

The NSO said that this was the first time that the NHTS results were calibrated and grossed up to corresponding population levels residing in private households, using data from the preliminary results of the Census of Population and Housing 2021, together with other relevant administrative data sources.

“This was crucial to solidify analysis by region, sex and age groups; also framing the outcomes of NHTS in the right context,” it said.

File photo: Gozo News/Alain Salvary

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