The Scottish Government

This item was published during the term of a previous administration that ended in April 2007

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Figures show more commuters drive

17/12/2002

Differences in the transport patterns for different groups of people are shown in a Scottish Executive statistical bulletin, called Household Transport in 2001: some Scottish Household Survey results, which is published today. Some of the main findings are listed below.

Travel to work

• 68% of commuters said that they travelled to work by car or van (58% as a driver and 10% as a passenger), 13% walked, 12% went by bus, 2% took a train and 2% cycled. 63% of men drove to work compared to 53% of women.

• 46% of those who travelled to work by car or van said that they could use public transport. The main reasons they gave for not doing so were "inconvenient" (52% of this sub group), "takes too long" (35%), "prefer to use own car" (33%) and "no direct route" (23%).
• 54% said that they could not use public transport. The main reasons given why they cannot were: "no direct route" (36% of this sub group), "lack of service" (34%), "inconvenient" (28%), "need a car for/at work" (20%) and "work unsocial hours" (20%).

Travel to school

• 52% of pupils walked, 23% were said to go by bus, 21% went by car or van, and only 1% cycled to school. 26% of primary school age pupils travelled by car, as did 13% of secondary school age pupils.
• 66% of pupils who travelled to school by car or van could not use public transport: "no service available" was the main reason given why they cannot do so (given for three fifths) and about a third were "too young to travel on their own" .

Trends in travel to work and school: 1999 to 2001

• Driving car/van to work - up from 55% in 1999 to 58% in 2001;
• Travel to school by car/van - up from 18% in 1999 to 21% in 2001;
• Walking to school - down from 55% in 1999 to 52% in 2001.

Fear of crime when travelling in the evening by bus, by train or by foot

• In each case, about a fifth of adults would feel "not particularly safe" or "not safe at all".

• More women (24-26%) than men (10-11%) felt "not particularly safe" or "not safe at all"; more old people felt less safe than young people (e.g. 31% of 80+ year olds would feel unsafe when travelling by foot in the evenings compared with 16% of 16-19 year olds); and people living in urban areas felt less safe than those living in rural areas (e.g. 9% of adults in large urban areas would feel "not safe at all" when walking in the evening compared with 0% of those in remote rural areas).

Availability of cars and bus services

• Almost two-thirds (64%) of households had one or more cars. Car availability rose with income, from 35% of households with an annual net income of under £5,000 to 97% of those with an annual net household income of over £40,000.

• 85% of all households were said to be up to 6 minutes walk away from a bus stop. Overall, 19% of householders said that there was a least one bus every 13 minutes: 35% in large urban areas but only 0-3% in small towns and rural areas.

Driving

• Almost two thirds (64%) of people aged 17+ were said to have a full driving licence in 2001: 76% of men (but only 54% of women) and over three quarters of 30-49 year olds.
• 46% of people aged 17+ were said to drive every day: 56% of men compared with just over a third (36%) of women. About three-fifths of people aged between 30 and 49 drove every day

Walking / cycling for pleasure / to keep fit

• 43% of adults said that they had made a trip of more than a quarter of a mile by foot for pleasure or to keep fit (including walking a dog) in the previous seven days: 46% of men and 40% of women .
• Only 3% of adults said that they had cycled for pleasure or to keep fit in the previous seven days: 5% of men and 2% of women.

Expenditure on fuel for motor vehicles

• Monthly average rose from £52 for the households with vehicles in the "over £5,000 up to £10,000" annual net income band to £129 for those in the "over £40,000" band.
• 20% of households with vehicles in "accessible" rural areas, and 16% of those in "remote" rural areas, spent £150+ per month - versus only 8% of those in large urban areas.

Household Transport in 2001: some Scottish Household Survey results costs £2, and may be purchased from the Stationery Bookshop, 71 Lothian Road, Edinburgh EH3 9AZ.

The SHS involves interviews with about 15,500 households across Scotland each year. While the aim is to obtain a representative cross section, like any such survey the results may vary from year to year depending upon the composition of the sample.

This is a National Statistics publication. It has been produced to high professional standards set out in the National Statistics Code of Practice and Release Practice Protocol.

http://www.statistics.gov.uk/about_ns/cop/default.asp

These statistics undergo regular quality assurance reviews to ensure that they meet customer needs. They are produced free from any political interference.