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1. Main points
1.1 In 2003/2004, about two-thirds of households (66%) had one or more cars available for private use. ( Section 3.1) The percentage was highest in rural areas (83%) and lowest in large urban areas (57%). ( Section 3.2)
1.2 About 23% of households had two or more cars, rising to around 39% in "accessible" rural areas. ( Section 3.2) The Council areas with the highest percentages were Aberdeenshire, East Dunbartonshire and East Renfrewshire (all around 36-37%); lowest were Dundee and Glasgow (10-11%). ( Section 3.3)
1.3 The percentage of households without a car available for private use was highest in Glasgow (55%), Dundee (49%) and Inverclyde (43%), and lowest in Aberdeenshire (16%) and East Dunbartonshire, East Renfrewshire, Highland and Moray (all 19-21%). ( Section 3.4)
1.4 About a third of households had one or more bicycles that adults could use. The percentage with bicycles ranged from 19% for households in Glasgow, and 21-22% in Dundee and Inverclyde, to 56% in Moray, 54% in Highland and 52% in Aberdeenshire. ( Section 3.5).
1.5 In 2003/2004, nearly two-thirds of people aged 17 or over were said to have a full driving licence. The percentage was lowest in large urban areas (58%) and highest in rural areas (80-81%), and ranged from 48% in Glasgow, 50% in Dundee and 54% in Inverclyde to 82% in Aberdeenshire and 75-79% in East Dunbartonshire, East Lothian, East Renfrewshire, Highland, Moray, Orkney, Perth & Kinross, Scottish Borders, Shetland and Stirling. ( Section 4.2)
1.6 Across Scotland, 42% of people aged 17 or over were said to drive every day: 55% of those in "accessible" rural areas, and 51% of those in "remote" rural areas, compared with only 34% of those in large urban areas. The figure ranged from 27-28% in Dundee and Glasgow and 32-34% in Edinburgh and North Ayrshire to 53-55% in Aberdeenshire, East Dunbartonshire, East Renfrewshire and Moray. ( Section 4.3)
1.7 Drivers were asked how they made each of seven types of journey. The percentage who said that they always used a car varied across Scotland, for example: for town centre shopping, from 39% in large urban areas to 90% in "remote" rural areas; for evenings out for leisure purposes, from 37% in large urban areas to 72% in "remote" rural areas; for shopping for small amounts of food, from 35% in Edinburgh to 84% in Eilean Siar. Edinburgh had the lowest percentages; Glasgow and, to a lesser extent, Aberdeen and Dundee tended to have lower percentages than most; Eilean Siar and Shetland had the highest percentages. ( Section 4.5)
1.8 Drivers who always used a car for a particular type of journey were asked how easy it would be to use another mode of transport. 48% of drivers who always used a car to go shopping for small amounts of food said that it would be easy to use another mode of transport - in contrast to 15-20% of those who always used a car to visit friends or relatives, to go supermarket shopping or for evenings out for leisure purposes; and around a third of those who always used a car to go town centre shopping, to the GP or to the library. The percentages were much lower in rural areas than in small towns and urban areas. Orkney and Shetland were always among the Council areas with the lowest percentages; Dundee, Falkirk and Perth & Kinross tended to be among the highest. ( Section 4.5)
1.9 In 2003/2004, 54% of adults said that they had made a trip of more than a quarter of a mile by foot to go somewhere in the previous seven days, but only 35-41% of those in rural areas had done so. Among the Council areas, the percentage was highest in Edinburgh (70%) and Falkirk and North Ayrshire (both 60-62%) and lowest in Eilean Siar (17%) and Aberdeenshire (37%). However, 52-56% of adults in rural areas and "remote" small towns said that they had walked for pleasure or to keep fit in the seven days before the interview, compared with the overall figure of 44%. The figures ranged from 31-35% in Aberdeen, Glasgow, North Lanarkshire, Renfrewshire and South Lanarkshire to 70% in Moray and 58% in Argyll & Bute, Perth & Kinross and South Ayrshire. ( Section 5.2)
1.10 In 2003/2004, about 4% of householders said that they had no bus service or were at least 14 minutes walk away from the nearest bus stop (or place where one could get on a bus). However, about 27% of householders in "remote" rural areas, and around 14% of those in "accessible" rural areas, said that they had no bus service or were at least 14 minutes walk away from one. Of the Council areas, Orkney (27%), Shetland (18%), Aberdeenshire and Highland (both 14%) and Argyll & Bute and Dumfries & Galloway (11-12%) had the highest percentages. ( Section 6.1)
1.11 23% of householders did not know the frequency of their nearest bus service, with the percentage ranging from 9% in Edinburgh to 35-36% in Aberdeenshire, Dumfries & Galloway, Scottish Borders and Shetland. ( Section 6.2)
1.12 Public transport was described as "very convenient" by 51% of adults in large urban areas, but by only 19% of those living in "remote" rural areas: there, 27% said that it was "very inconvenient", and a further 20% felt that it was "fairly inconvenient". Among the Council areas, the "very convenient" percentage was highest for Aberdeen, East Renfrewshire, Edinburgh and Renfrewshire (all 51-59%); and the "very inconvenient" percentage was highest for Aberdeenshire, Dumfries & Galloway, Highland, Scottish Borders and Shetland (all 18-21%). ( Section 6.4)
1.13 11% of adults said that they had used their local bus service "every day, or almost every day". This percentage was highest in large urban areas (17%) and lowest in "remote" rural areas (2%); it was 23% in Edinburgh and 20% in Glasgow. A total of 41% of adults said that they had used a local bus service in the past month. Again, the percentage was highest in large urban areas (56%) and lowest in "remote" rural areas (15%). 71% of adults in Edinburgh had used their local bus service in the past month. The figure for Glasgow was 56%; in contrast, only 11-13% of adults in Orkney and Shetland had used their local bus in the past month. ( Section 6.5)
1.14 17% of adults had used a train in the past month: 27-33% in East Dunbartonshire, East Renfrewshire, Inverclyde, North Ayrshire and West Dunbartonshire. ( Section 6.5)
1.15 In general, bus users' views on eleven aspects of the services did not vary much with the type of area. The exceptions were the percentages who agreed that: "the buses are on time" (68% in large urban areas, 91% in "remote" rural areas); "the buses are frequent" (60% in "remote" rural areas, 83% in other urban areas); "the service runs when I need it" (60% in "accessible" rural areas; 78% in other urban areas); and "the buses are clean" (67% in large urban areas, 90% in "remote" rural areas). Only 46% of bus users in Glasgow agreed that "the buses are clean", and only 34% of bus users in Scottish Borders agreed that "it's easy changing to other forms of transport". ( Section 6.6)
1.16 Overall, 8% of adults felt, or would feel, "not safe at all" from crime when travelling by bus in the evening. The percentage was highest in Dundee (26%) and Angus, East Ayrshire, Glasgow, North Lanarkshire, Renfrewshire, South Lanarkshire and West Dunbartonshire (all 10-15%); it was only 2% in "remote" small towns and "remote" rural areas. ( Section 6.7)
1.17 Over two-thirds of commuters said that they usually travelled to work by car or van (60% as the driver, 8% as a passenger), 13% walked, 12% went by bus, 3% used a train and 2% cycled. The percentage who drove to their place of work was highest for "accessible" rural areas (75%) and "remote" rural areas (72%), and lowest for large urban areas and "remote" small towns (both 50-51%). The percentage who travelled to work by car or van was lowest for those who lived in Edinburgh (48%) and Glasgow (54%) and highest for people in Clackmannanshire (85%) and Aberdeenshire, Falkirk, Shetland and South Lanarkshire (all 78-79%). ( Section 7.4)
1.18 26% of commuters living in "remote" small towns walked to work. Angus, Orkney and Scottish Borders had the highest percentages (20-24%). The bus was the usual means of travel to work for 19% of those living in large urban areas, with the highest percentages being in Edinburgh (26%) and Dundee and Glasgow (both 20-21%). ( Section 7.4)
1.19 About 9% of employed adults worked at or from home. The percentage was highest in "remote" rural areas (21%), and in Eilean Siar and Orkney (both 19%). ( Section 7.5).
1.20 In 2003/2004, 43% of those who usually travelled to work by car or van said that they could use public transport. The percentage was highest for those living in large urban areas (53%) and for Edinburgh (64%) and East Dunbartonshire, Glasgow, Renfrewshire and West Dunbartonshire (all 53-58%). However, 85% of car/van commuters living in "remote" rural areas said that they could not use public transport, as did 84-85% of car/van commuters in Orkney and Shetland. ( Section 7.6)
1.21 Walking was reported to be the usual method of travel to school for 52% of pupils, 23% went by bus, 22% travelled in a car or van, and only 1% cycled. About three-fifths of pupils in towns and cities walked to school, compared with around 30% of those in rural areas. The percentage travelling by bus was 16-21% in towns and cities, and 43-51% in rural areas. There was much less variation in the use of the car, the figures for the different types of area all being between 16% and 23%. ( Section 8)
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