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4. Driving licences, frequency of driving, how drivers make particular types of journey, and how easy it would be to use another mode of transport - people aged 17 or over(Tables 3 to 6; Chart B)
4.1 In the second part of the SHS interview, one randomly-chosen adult (16+) member of the household is asked about his/her circumstances and views. As it is sometimes not possible to arrange an interview with the chosen person, these results are based on smaller sample numbers than the earlier analyses. The interviewer asks the randomly-chosen adult about the type (if any) of driving licence that he/she holds, and then asks those who say that they hold full driving licences how often they drive nowadays. Two points should be noted. First, the way in which the information is collected changed with effect from April 2003. Until then, the interviewer had asked the Highest Income Householder (or his/her spouse/partner) about the type (if any) of driving licence held by each adult member of the household, and the frequency of driving of those who held a full driving licence - so some of the answers used not to be provided by the person to whom they related. Second, because a full driving licence is only available to those who are aged 17 or over, the statistics in this section, and in Tables 3 to 6, relate only to people aged 17+.
4.2 Driving licences
4.2.1 The right-hand side of Table 3 shows that, in 2003/2004, almost two-thirds (65%) of people aged 17+ said that they had a full driving licence (car or motorcycle). Chart B shows that the percentage of people aged 17+ who held a full driving licence was lowest in large urban areas (58%) and highest in rural areas (80-81%). Table 3 shows that Glasgow (48%), Dundee (50%) and Inverclyde (54%) were the Council areas with the lowest percentages; Aberdeenshire (82%) and East Dunbartonshire, East Lothian, East Renfrewshire, Highland, Moray, Orkney, Perth & Kinross, Scottish Borders, Shetland and Stirling (all 75-79%) had the highest values.
4.3 Frequency of driving
4.3.1 The interviewer asks those randomly-chosen adults who have a full driving licence (either car or motorcycle) how often they drive nowadays. The results are shown in the left-hand columns of Table 3. Overall, in 2003/2004, 42% of people aged 17+ said they drove every day, and a further 11% drove at least three times per week (but not every day), 6% said that they drove once or twice a week, and a few people reportedly drove less frequently: 1% "at least two or three times a month"; 0% (to the nearest whole percent) "at least once a month"; and 2% "less than once a month". The 4% of people who were said to hold a full driving licence but "never drive nowadays" accounted for the remainder of the 65% who had a full driving licence.
4.3.2 Chart B shows that people aged 17+ who lived in rural areas were the most likely to drive every day: 55% of those living in "accessible" rural areas, and 51% of those in "remote" rural areas, did so, compared with only 34% of those in large urban areas. Table 3 shows that the percentages driving at least three times per week (but not every day) were also higher in rural areas (13-17%) than in urban areas (9-10%).
4.3.3 In 2003/2004, the percentage said to drive every day was highest for Aberdeenshire, East Dunbartonshire, East Renfrewshire and Moray (all 53-55%) and lowest for Glasgow and Dundee (both 27-28%) and Edinburgh and North Ayrshire (both 32-34%). The percentage of adults aged 17+ who drove at least three times a week (but not every day) varied from 6-7% in some local authority areas to 13-14% in others; the particularly high values for Perth & Kinross (20%) and Shetland (28%) may reflect sampling variability.
4.4 Changes between 1999/2000 and 2003/2004 in the possession of a full driving licence and the frequency of driving
4.4.1 Table 4 compares the figures for the three two-year periods. There are few large changes, either in any of the types of areas across Scotland or in any RTP areas. A few apparently "statistically significant" changes may arise purely by chance, due to sampling variability (see paragraph 10.8). The occasional case with an apparent slight fall between one period and the next in the percentage holding a full driving licence may reflect sampling variability rather than a genuine drop. Shetland's 28% who said that they drove at least times a week (but not every day) for 2003/2004 is clearly unusual, compared with the values of 7% for both the earlier periods.
4.5 How drivers make particular types of journey
4.5.1 For the purposes of this bulletin, a randomly-chosen adult who said that he/she had a full driving licence, and who did not say that he/she never drives nowadays, is counted as a driver. Drivers were asked how they made each of seven different types of journey. In each case, the possible responses were that they:
- never made that type of journey;
- always used a car;
- sometimes used a car and sometimes used another means of transport (such as walking, or taking the bus); and
- never used the car ( i.e. they always used another means of transport).
For those types of journey for which they always used a car, they were then asked how easy or difficult it would be for them to make the journey without a car. These questions were introduced in April 2003, so the statistics given here are based on the data for April 2003 to December 2004 only.
4.5.2 The first figure on the first line of Table 5 shows that (for Scotland as a whole) 51% of drivers who went shopping for small amounts of food always went by car. The other figures on the line show that 90% of drivers who went supermarket shopping always used a car, 62% of drivers who went town centre shopping always used a car, and so on. The final figure on the line indicates that each of the percentages is based on answers which were given by at least 10,551 drivers. This is the number of drivers who said that they went to the library (by whatever means of transport) as, of the seven types of journey, this was the one which was made by the smallest number of those who were interviewed.
4.5.3 The percentage of drivers who made each type of journey who always used a car varied with the type of area in which they lived. In the case of drivers who went supermarket shopping, the variation was not great: the percentage was between 84% and 97% for every type of area. However, for drivers who went town centre shopping, the percentage who always used a car ranged from 39% for those living in large urban areas to 90% for those living in "remote" rural areas. In the case of drivers who went on evenings out for leisure purposes, 37% of those living in urban areas always used a car, compared with 72% of those living in "remote" rural areas. For all types of journey, the percentages who always used a car were highest for drivers living in rural areas; the percentages for small towns were often more similar to those for urban areas. As might be expected, there was greater variation between the figures for different local authority areas - for example, the percentage of drivers who went shopping for small amounts of food who always used a car varied from 35% in Edinburgh to 84% in Eilean Siar. It should be remembered that some of the apparent differences between areas could be "magnified" by the effect of sampling variability, since some of the percentages will be based on the answers given by only a few hundred drivers, and therefore could be subject to sampling errors of several percentage points. However, it is clear that Edinburgh had the lowest percentage of drivers who always used a car when making each type of journey, and that Glasgow and, to a lesser extent, Aberdeen and Dundee tended to have lower percentages than almost all other Council areas. Eilean Siar had the highest percentage for six out of the seven types of journey, and Shetland also tended to have high percentages.
4.5.4 The results of the second set of questions are summarised in Table 6. This shows that, for Scotland as a whole, 48% of drivers who always used a car for shopping for small amounts of food said that it would be "very easy" or "fairly easy" for them to use another means of transport - in contrast to only 17% of drivers who always used a car to go supermarket shopping. Visiting friends and relatives (15%) and evenings out for leisure purposes (20%) were the other types of journey for which small percentages of those who always used a car said that it would be "very easy" or "fairly easy" to use another means of transport. In the case of each of the other three types of journey (going town centre shopping, to the GP and to the library), roughly a third of those who always used a car said that it would be easy to use another means of transport.
4.5.5 For each type of journey, the percentage of drivers who always use a car who said that it would be easy to use another means of transport is much lower for rural areas than for small towns or urban areas. For example, the percentages who could use another means of transport for shopping for small amounts of food ranged from 18% for "remote" rural areas to 61% for "accessible" small towns. The type of journey with the smallest difference between the types of area is supermarket shopping, for which the range of values is from 7% to 19%. As would be expected, there is a much wider range of values when the figures for local authority areas are considered (in the case of supermarket shopping, from 3% to 37%), but it must be remembered that some of them may be subject to large percentage sampling errors, being based on small sample numbers. Orkney and Shetland were always among the Council areas which had the lowest percentages of drivers who always used a car who said that it would be easy to use another form of transport; Dundee, Falkirk and Perth & Kinross tended to be among those with the highest percentages.
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