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6. Knowledge and use of Traveline Scotland and Transport Direct; use of a motorbike, moped or scooter; walking and cycling - adults (16+)
6.1 Knowledge and use of Traveline Scotland
6.1.1 Traveline Scotland is a telephone, internet and SMS travel enquiry service providing public transport timetable and journey planning information to travellers in Scotland. The randomly-chosen adult is asked several questions about it. Most of the questions are asked only of those who have heard of, or used, Traveline Scotland, so are answered by only a small proportion of the sample. Therefore, the left-hand part of Table 15 shows only the percentages who have heard of Traveline Scotland, and who have used it, as they are the only questions whose results are based on the whole sample. The table provides figures with one decimal place because many of the numbers are small percentages.
6.1.2 Overall, 17.5% of adults said that they had heard of Traveline Scotland. There was not much difference between types of area - the percentage varied only from 15.1% in "remote" rural areas to 18.7% in "accessible" rural areas. However, there was much greater variation between Council areas: awareness of Traveline Scotland was lowest in Shetland (5.2%), Orkney (6.9%) and Dundee City, East Ayrshire and Eilean Siar (9.0-9.3%); and highest in East Lothian (35%) and Midlothian (28%). Among the RTPs, South-East had the highest figure (21.5%) and Zetland the lowest (5.2%).
6.1.3 4.7% of adults said that they had used Traveline Scotland. Again, there was not much difference between types of area (although the figure was only 2.8% in "remote" rural areas); again, there were bigger differences between Council areas. Usage was lowest in Eilean Siar, Orkney and Shetland (0.5-1.5%) and highest in East Dunbartonshire, East Lothian and Midlothian (8.2-9.4%). Of the RTPs, South-East had the highest figure (6.4%) and Zetland the lowest (0.5%).
6.2 Knowledge and use of Transport Direct
6.2.1 Transport Direct is an internet-only travel enquiry service providing information about many different ways of making journeys, by public transport and by private transport, within the UK. The randomly-chosen adult is asked several questions about it. Most of the questions are asked only of those who have heard of it, or used it, so are answered by only a small proportion of the sample. Therefore, the middle columns of Table 15 show only the percentages who have heard of Transport Direct, and who have used Transport Direct, as they are the only questions whose results are based on the whole sample. Again, figures with one decimal place are provided because many of the numbers are small percentages.
6.2.2 Overall, 7.3% of adults said that they had heard of Transport Direct. There was not much difference between types of area (ranging only from 6.8% in "remote" small towns to 8.3% in "remote" rural areas) or RTPs (4.4% to 7.9%). However, there was much greater variation between Council areas: awareness of Transport Direct was lowest in Eilean Siar, Moray, Shetland, Stirling and West Lothian (4.0-4.7%) and highest in Argyll & Bute (16%) and East Dunbartonshire, East Lothian, East Renfrewshire, Midlothian and West Dunbartonshire (10.1-12.1%).
6.2.3 1.4% of adults said that they had used Transport Direct. Again, there was not much difference between types of area (the range was only 1.2-1.6%); again, there were bigger differences between Council areas. Usage appeared to be highest in Midlothian (4.3%) and Argyll & Bute, East Renfrewshire, Edinburgh, Fife and Perth & Kinross (2.1-2.5%) - but, given the sample sizes, one cannot be confident that these differences are greater than might be expected to arise as a result of sampling variability alone.
6.3 Use of a motorbike, moped or scooter in the past year
6.3.1 The interviewer asks all adults who said that they had a provisional or a full driving licence whether they had ridden a motorbike, moped or scooter in the past year. Several other questions about motorcycling are then asked of those who had done so. The right-hand part of Table 15 shows only the percentage who had ridden a motorbike, moped or scooter, as that is the only question whose results are based on the whole sample. Again, figures with one decimal place are provided because there are many small percentages.
6.3.2 Overall, 2.5% of adults said that they had ridden a motorbike, moped or scooter in the past year. There is some variation between different types of area (from 1.8% in large urban areas to 4.1% in "remote" rural areas), RTPs (1.9% to 3.5%) and Council areas (from 0.7-0.9% in Glasgow and Inverclyde to 3.8-3.9% in Aberdeenshire, Angus, Fife and Perth & Kinross). Given the sample sizes, one cannot be sure that many such differences are greater than would be expected to arise as a result of sampling variability alone.
6.4 Walking
6.4.1 The interviewer asks the randomly-chosen adult on how many of the previous seven days did he/she make a trip of more than a quarter of a mile by foot (a) to go somewhere such as work, shopping or to see friends (i.e. used walking as a means of transport); and (b) just for the pleasure of walking, or to keep fit or walk a dog. A similar question is asked about cycling. With effect from January 2005, these questions have been asked of a randomly-chosen half of the sample.
6.4.2 The left-hand side of Table 16 shows that 47% of adults said that, in the previous seven days, they had not made a trip of more than a quarter of a mile by foot to go somewhere, 15% had made such a trip on 1-2 days, 21% had done so on 3-5 days, and 16% had done so on 6-7 days. In total, 53% claimed to have made a trip of more than a quarter of a mile by foot to go somewhere in the previous seven days. Chart C shows that this percentage was highest (57%) for adults in large urban areas and lowest for those in rural areas (38-40%). Edinburgh and Midlothian (both 66%) and Angus and Stirling (63-64%) had the highest percentages; Eilean Siar (20%) and Aberdeenshire (35%) had the lowest. The percentage of adults who said that they had walked to go somewhere on 6-7 of the previous seven days was highest for Edinburgh, Midlothian and Stirling (all 27-31%), and lowest for Aberdeenshire, Eilean Siar, North Lanarkshire and Shetland (all 5-9%).
Chart H: Employed adults not working from home - usual main method of travel to work: 2005 and 2006
Councils in order of % who commute by car/van
6.4.3 The right-hand side of Table 16 provides information about walking for pleasure or to keep fit (including walking a dog). 54% of adults said that they had not done so in the past seven days, 16% had done so on 1-2 days, 14% had done so on 3-5 days and 16% had done so on 6-7 days. In total, 46% of adults had made a trip of more than a quarter of a mile by foot for pleasure or to keep fit in the previous seven days. Chart C shows that this percentage was highest in "remote" rural areas (61%) and lowest in large urban areas (39%). Moray (69%) and Argyll & Bute, East Ayrshire, Highland, Perth & Kinross and Stirling (all 60-65%) had the highest percentages; Clackmannanshire, Glasgow, Inverclyde and North Lanarkshire (all 32-38%) had the lowest. The percentage who had walked for pleasure or to keep fit on 6-7 of the previous seven days was highest in Moray (31%) and Perth & Kinross (29%) and lowest in Shetland (5%) and East Renfrewshire (8%).
6.4.4 Table 17 compares the figures for the four two-year periods. The change to the use of a randomly-chosen sub-sample is reflected in the sample size for 2005/2006. In the left-hand part of the table, the overall percentages for Scotland as a whole suggest a slight rise in the number of days on which walking was used as a means of transport. The changes for the different types of area are not large: in many cases, the figures for the different periods are all within a couple of percentage points of each other, and in only a few cases (often for the areas with the smaller sample numbers) do they differ by more than four percentage points. When account is taken of the underlying sample sizes, some of these apparent changes will not be "significant" statistically. Only one RTP had a large change between 1999/2000 and 2005/2006 in the percentage of adults who said that they had walked to go somewhere: North-East (down from 51% to 46%).
6.4.5 The overall figures for Scotland in the right-hand part of the table show a marked increase in walking for pleasure or to keep fit between 1999/2000 and 2005/2006. There were increases of at least three percentage points in the figures for each of the types of area, and in six of the seven RTP areas. The largest rises were in Highlands & Islands (up from 52% in 1999/2000 to 63% in 2003/2004), Strathclyde (up from 34% to 42%) and Tayside & Central (up from 47% to 56%). Occasional fluctuations in some of the series may be due to sampling variability.
6.5 Cycling
6.5.1 Table 18 shows the reported frequencies of cycling. In 2005/2006, only 3% of adults said that they had cycled as a means of transport in the previous seven days. There was little variation with the type of area (from 2% to 5%). The percentages for Council areas ranged between 1% and 9%. One should not infer too much from the apparent differences between areas, as they are small and the figures are based (in many cases) on only a few hundred sample cases, and therefore could well be subject to sampling errors of a couple of percentage points. However, as the Highland figure of 9% is based on answers from over 500 adults, one can be fairly confident that the level for that Council area is higher than the overall figure of 3%. Of the RTPs, Highlands & Islands had the highest figure (7%).
6.5.2 4% of adults said that they had cycled for pleasure or to keep fit in the previous seven days. There was little variation by type of area (from 3% to 6%); the percentages for Council areas ranged between 2% and 10%. Again, one should not infer too much from the figures for many of the areas, because they are based on small samples, but the Highland figure of 10% is "statistically significantly" higher than the overall level of 4%. Of the RTPs, Highlands & Islands had the highest figure (8%).
Chart I: Employed people working from home; car/van commuters who could use public transport: 2005 and 2006
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