« Previous | Contents | Next »
Listen
7 Travel to work - employed adults(Tables 18 to 21; Charts H and I)
7.1 The interviewer puts a series of questions about travel to work to all those randomly-chosen adults whose current situation was described as "self-employed", "employed full-time" or "employed part-time". Therefore, the results described in this section do not apply in the case of any travel to work by people whose current situation was described in some other way. (For example, these questions were not asked of people who were described as "in full-time education", some of whom may, in fact, have part-time jobs.)
7.2 The interviewer asks about the location of the person's place of work. People who "work from home" (the term covers both those who work at home and those who work from home - e.g. a plumber whose base is at home, and who each day goes to wherever his services are required) are identified at this stage, and the interviewer does not enquire about their usual means of travel to work: that is asked only of those who do not work from home.
7.3 The reader is reminded that here, as throughout this bulletin, people are counted on the basis of where they live, not where they work. For example, the "travel to work" percentages for Edinburgh were calculated from the information provided by the sample members who lived in Edinburgh - so do not indicate the usual means of commuting for all those who work in Edinburgh (including people from - e.g. - elsewhere in the Lothians and Fife).
7.4 Usual main method of travel to work: those who do not work from (or at) home
7.4.1 Table 18 shows that, in 2003/2004, 68% of commuters said that they usually travelled to work by car or van (60% as the driver and 8% as a passenger), 13% walked to work, 12% went by bus, 3% took a train (or the Glasgow Underground), 2% cycled and 2% used other modes of transport (such as a motorcycle or a taxi). The percentage who said that they drove to 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 Council areas with the highest percentages driving to work were Aberdeenshire, Clackmannanshire, East Dunbartonshire, East Renfrewshire, Shetland and South Ayrshire (all 70-75%); Dundee, Edinburgh and Glasgow had the lowest values (43-48%). The percentage who said that they were a car or van passenger was between 6% and 10% for every type of area. However, there were some large differences between Council areas, with the estimate ranging from 4-5% in some areas to 12% in others (and 16% in one area, though its figure is based on data for only 211 commuters, so could well be affected by sampling variability). Taking drivers and passengers together, people travelling by car or van accounted for 48% of Edinburgh commuters, and 54% for Glasgow, compared with 85% for Clackmannanshire and 78-79% for Aberdeenshire, Falkirk, Shetland and South Lanarkshire: this is illustrated in Chart H.
7.4.2 Overall, in 2003/2004, 13% said that they usually walked to work. This percentage was highest in "remote" small towns (26%) and lowest in "accessible" rural areas (8%). It ranged from 2% in East Dunbartonshire to 20-24% in Angus, Orkney and Scottish Borders.
7.4.3 The bus was said to be the usual means of travel to work for 12% of commuters in 2003/2004. The figures for different types of area ranged from 4% for "remote" rural areas to 19% in large urban areas. Aberdeenshire, Angus, Orkney, Scottish Borders and Shetland had the lowest percentages (1-4%), and Edinburgh (26%) and Dundee and Glasgow (both 20-21%) had the highest.
7.4.4 Other modes of transport were used by small percentages of commuters. However, the percentage who usually travelled to work by rail was highest for East Dunbartonshire, Glasgow, North Ayrshire and West Dunbartonshire (all 7-8%), and the highest percentage for bicycle was 4% for Angus, Edinburgh and Moray.
7.4.5 Table 19 compares the figures for the three two-year periods. There is very little difference in the results for Scotland as a whole, apart from an increase in the "car driver" percentage, and a fall in the "passenger" percentage. Each of the types of area shows a similar pattern, but the sizes of the changes may differ. Indeed, there may be some period to period fluctuations of a couple of percentage points in some of the figures for commuters living in small towns and rural areas, which may simply be due to sampling variability - this is particularly likely in the case of the figures for "remote" small towns, which are based on interviews with only about 600 or so people in each two-year period. Similar comments apply in the case of the figures for the RTP areas: again, some of their apparent changes could be due to sampling variability, since many of the figures for each two-year period are based on interviews with, at most, only a thousand or so commuters, and therefore could be subject to sampling errors of several percentage points.
7.5 Working from (or at) home
7.5.1 The left-hand part of Table 20 shows that, in 2003/2004, 9% of employed adults said that they worked from (or at) home. There were particularly high percentages in "remote" rural areas (21%) and in Eilean Siar and Orkney (both 19%) - see Chart I.
7.6 Car or van commuters - could they use public transport? where do drivers park?
7.6.1 The interviewer asks people who say that they usually travel to work by car or van whether they could use public transport. The right-hand side of Table 20 shows that, in 2003/2004, 43% of them said that they could use public transport to travel to work, and 55% said that they could not (a few said that they did not know). The percentage who could use public transport was particularly high for large urban areas (53%), and for Edinburgh (64%) and East Dunbartonshire, Glasgow, Renfrewshire and West Dunbartonshire (all 53-58%) - see Chart I. The percentage who said that they could not use public transport was particularly high for "remote" rural areas (85%), and for Orkney and Shetland (both 84-85%).
7.6.2 Those who drove to work were asked where they parked. Table 21 shows that, in 2003/2004, 69% said that they parked free of charge in a car park provided by their employer, 14% parked on the street at no cost and 4% parked free of charge in another car park. Only 6% paid for parking in a car park provided by the employer, 3% used a commercial car park, and 1% paid for an on-street parking space. These percentages did not vary greatly with the type of area - for example, the percentage who parked free of charge in a car park provided by their employer ranged from 62% for large urban areas to 73% for other urban areas; the percentage who parked on the street at no cost was 21% for large urban areas, 18% for "remote" small towns and 10-12% for all other types of area. There was greater variation between Council areas: for "free car park provided by employer", the range was from 54% for Glasgow to 81% for Fife and Moray; for "on the street at no cost" it ranged from 6% for Fife and Orkney to 31% for Glasgow. However, it must be remembered that the figures for some Council areas are based on small samples, so could be subject to sampling errors of several percentage points.
« Previous | Contents | Next »