I need to know statistics for car usage in the UK.  Ultimately, I need
to know what percentage of car journeys in the UK are close to home
(ie - shopping, socialising, school run etc) and what percentage are
long-distance (50 miles or above).

Dear shaverin,

The statistics closest to what you desire can be found in the 2004
National Travel Survey by the Department of Transport. Section 3 of
the survey, "How people travel", provides the following figures on
care usage in Table 3.4, "Trips per person by year by distance and
main mode":

The average car/van driver in the UK would do a total number of 399
trips of all lengths in 2004. The distribution of distances among
these trips was:

- Under 1 mile ...........  27 trips
- 1 to under 2 miles .....  67 trips
- 2 to under 5 miles ..... 132 trips
- 5 to under 10 miles ....  84 trips
- 10 to under 25 miles ...  63 trips
- 25 to under 50 miles ...  17 trips
- 50 to under 100 miles ..   7 trips
- 100 miles and over .....   3 trips

This means that of 399 trips (=100%), 389 trips (=97.49%) were under
50 miles, while only 10 trips (=2.51%) were over 50 miles.

The figures are slightly different for car/van passengers. The average
car/van passenger in the UK did a total number of 226 trips in 2004,
with the following distribution of distances:

- Under 1 mile ........... 17 trips
- 1 to under 2 miles ..... 42 trips
- 2 to under 5 miles ..... 76 trips
- 5 to under 10 miles .... 54 trips
- 10 to under 25 miles ... 31 trips
- 25 to under 50 miles ...  9 trips
- 50 to under 100 miles ..  4 trips
- 100 miles and over .....  2 trips

This means that of 226 trips (=100%), 220 trips (=97.345%) were under
50 miles, and only 6 trips (=2.655%) were over 50 miles. So the final
passengers' percentage of trips over and under 50 miles is very
similar to the figures for drivers.

I hope this is what you needed to know.
Regards,
Scriptor


Source:
UK Department for Transport: National Travel Survey
http://www.dft.gov.uk/stellent/groups/dft_transstats/documents/divisionhomepage/028941.hcsp

Fantastic - spot on.  Worth every cent.  Thank you!