It will come as little surprise to most fleets to learn that traffic on the UK’s roads has grown by 84% since 1980.

Record levels of car ownership and usage are showing little signs of slowing.

Now nearly one-third of households have access to two or more cars, which is more than the proportion of households without access to a car.

This and a host of other traffic and travel related statistics can be found in a Department for Transport’s 2007 Transport Trends Edition, which was published last week.

The good news is despite the rise in the number of cars and drivers on the roads, passenger fatality rate for cars crashes has more than halved since 1980.

Meanwhile, mainly thanks to better security, vehicle related thefts in England and Wales have more than halved since they peaked in the mid 1990s.

Car use has increased in parallel with the rising cost of using public transport.

Although the average number of trips people make has declined over the last ten years, the distance travelled and the time spent travelling has increased.

Despite the rising cost of public transport, rail travel has increased by over 50% over the last 26 years.

Investment in national rail infrastructure has increased significantly since privatisation.

The reliability of train services has been improving gradually since 2000, as has passenger satisfaction with journeys undertaken.

In a trend that is expected to taper off over the coming years, walking and cycling for travel purposes have both been declining significantly over the past decade.