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5. Why are people travelling?
The percentage of commuting journeys has increased since 1999 and represented over a quarter of all journeys on the previous day in 2006.
Figure 10: Reasons for travel (a) 1999 and (b) 2006
5.1 Commuting journeys represented just over a quarter of all journeys, a significant increase since 1999 (3 percentage points). Journeys reported for escorting (e.g. driving someone home) also showed a significant increase from 1999. [Figure 10, Table 2]
5.2 Independent of purpose, driving represented the largest share of journeys. Business journeys had the smallest fraction of walking and passenger journeys. Education journeys had the largest fraction of journeys by foot and bus. [Figure 11]
Figure 11: Journeys reported by adults (16+) - main mode of travel by purpose, 2005/2006
Gender and Age
5.3 Men recorded a larger percentage of commuting and business journeys than women (35 per cent and 26 per cent, respectively); however, women recorded a larger percentage of journeys for shopping purposes than men (25 per cent and 18 per cent, respectively).
5.4 Young respondents (under 20) recorded the largest percentage of journeys for educational purposes, which is as expected. Respondents aged 20-59 recorded around a third of all journeys for commuting purposes. This was consistent with 43 per cent of all full-time employed respondents commuting. [ Table 15]
5.5 Educational journeys, in general were short, with half of all journeys less than 2km. [ Table 19]
Income
5.6 Annual net household income correlated with the purpose of a journey. In low income households (up to £10,000 p.a.), commuting journeys represented a tenth of all journeys and shopping represented almost a third (31 per cent). Conversely, in high income households (more than £40,000 p.a.) commuting journeys accounted for 30 per cent and shopping just 18 per cent. However, there was very little difference in the percentage share of journeys by the SIMD quintiles or urban/rural classification.
Area Type
5.7 There was no significant difference for purpose by urban/rural classification.
Distance
5.8 The majority of shopping journeys were less than 5 km, with the median distance 3 km but the average distance 8 km. There was an almost even spread of distances across the bands for commuting journeys but the average distance travelled was 10 km. [ Table 17, Table 19]
5.9 The majority of journeys across Scotland were less than 5 km. [Figure 12]
Figure 12: Distance travelled, 2005/2006
5.10 The majority of journeys were within council regions for all journeys and commuting journeys [ Table 28, Table 29]. Note: This used all data collected since 1999.
Glasgow and Edinburgh
5.11 Taking the two main cities of Scotland, Edinburgh and Glasgow it was possible to compare the modes, purpose, time of journey, distance travelled and origin of destination, using data collected from 1999 to 2006. Edinburgh had a significantly higher percentage of journeys as driver (44 per cent compared to 38 per cent in Glasgow). There was very little difference between bus journeys in the two cities. There was no significant difference in purpose. [ Table 30]
5.12 A large percentage of journeys into Edinburgh and Glasgow came from council regions close to each city, with very few journeys reported from Tayside, Grampian or the Highland and Islands to either city.
5.13 Journeys within Edinburgh and Glasgow had a smaller percentage of driver journeys and a much higher percentage of walking journeys than journeys into Edinburgh and Glasgow. There were also more bus journeys within Edinburgh and Glasgow than bus journeys into Edinburgh and Glasgow. [ Table 31]
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