The statistics ministry’s first-ever household travel survey has found that only 9% of Indians primarily use public transport to go to work, with 43% using two-wheelers. A mere 3% use cars. The survey’s results also seemingly back the decision by several states to offer free bus travel to women, with more than a fifth of urban women using this mode of transport to go to work, three times as high as urban men.Further, people in urban areas spend as much as Rs 1,044 per month to commute to work, 71% more than the Rs 612 spent by people in rural areas. Nationally, the average monthly expenditure to go to work is Rs 785.As per the survey, buses are the primary mode of transport for 6.7% of people who reported travelling more than 1 kilometre to reach their place of work. Another 2.1% said they used monorail or tram, while 0.2% said they travel by rail.“While monorail, metro, suburban rail, and trams account for 5% of urban worker commutes nationally, usage surges in Maharashtra (20.7%), West Bengal (16.5%), and Delhi (14.4%),” the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) said on Monday.Train, monorail, and tram includes metro rail and local trains.The findings of the National Household Travel Survey (NHTS), conducted from July 2025 to June 2026, are based on responses from 20 lakh people across 14,274 villages and 10,377 urban blocks. MoSPI said the survey’s main objective is to generate data-driven insights that can be used in regional transport planning and infrastructure developments as well as identify gaps, optimise transport routes, and improve service frequency and scheduling.The survey’s results back the decision made by several states to offer free bus travel for women, with 21.7% of urban women who travel more than 1 km for work primarily using a bus. For urban males, this figure is just 6.9%.Story continues below this adAlso read | Tamil Nadu CM Vijay expands free bus travel scheme to benefit 84 lakh womenIn certain states, the fraction of urban women commuting to work by bus was significantly higher than the national average: 46.8% in Keralam, 41.1% in Tamil Nadu, 34.9% in Karnataka, and 28.9% in Telangana.The ‘bus’ category includes public, private, company, and inter-city buses.According to an April 2026 IIT Bombay paper titled ‘Ticket to Ride: Impact of free public transport on women’s workforce participation in India’, participation of women in the labour force is closely linked to access to affordable public transport.“In areas where regressive social norms serve as a binding constraint against women’s mobility and their workforce participation, the free bus scheme for all women encourages higher ridership which provides a social cover for even more women to travel, thereby starting a virtuous cycle,” the paper said, adding that its findings showed that states can “leverage the free bus scheme for women as a tool for inclusive economic growth and development”.Story continues below this adExpress Opinion | The high cost of a free bus ride: A lesson from KeralaCriticised by some as a ‘freebie’, schemes offering free bus travel to women are becoming increasingly popular, with Tamil Nadu Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay last week expanding the scheme in the state by removing the limit on daily trips. The expansion is expected to benefit over 84 lakh women. Some of the other states that offer free bus rides to women include Delhi, Punjab, Karnataka, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, West Bengal and Keralam.MoSPI’s survey report released on Monday also showed that the monthly expenditure commuting to work for urban women in many of these states was much lower than in others: Rs 564 in Tamil Nadu, Rs 577 in Karnataka, Rs 716 in Andhra Pradesh, Rs 746 in Telangana, and Rs 820 in Punjab. The all-India average for urban women was Rs 884.