Millions of commuters in Germany still prioritize the car as their primary mode of transportation, a recent survey has revealed. According to the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis), 65 percent of working individuals reported using a private vehicle for their daily commute in 2024, a slight decline from the 68 percent recorded in 2020.
Public transportation, such as buses and trains, was used by 16 percent of employees, a marginal increase from the 14 percent in 2020. The introduction of the Deutschlandticket in 2023, a subsidized public transportation pass, may have contributed to this growth. The percentage of pedestrians, on the other hand, rose by one percentage point to seven percent, while the number of cyclists remained steady at 10 percent.
Seventy percent of employees required less than 30 minutes to travel from their residence to the workplace in 2024, with nearly one in five (19 percent) taking under 10 minutes and half of the respondents (50 percent) taking between 10 and 30 minutes. Twenty-three percent of commuters needed more than 30 minutes but under an hour and only six percent took over an hour to complete their daily commute.
The majority of workers, 27 percent, had a workplace within a five-kilometer radius, with 22 percent having a distance of five to under 10 kilometers, 29 percent having a distance of 10 to under 25 kilometers and 15 percent having a distance of 25 to under 50 kilometers. Only five percent of employees had a daily commute of 50 kilometers or more.