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3 Driving licence, car ownership and frequency of driving
- A quarter of all households in 2007 had access to two or more cars and 70 per cent had access to one or more cars.
- Over two-thirds of all respondents had a full driving licence in 2007.
- Sixty-one per cent of respondents drove at least once a week and 45 per cent drove on a daily basis.
- Car access was dependent on annual net household income and deprivation.
- Six per cent of respondents had a blue badge in 2007.
Car access and licence possession
3.1 In 2007, 70 per cent of households had access to one or more cars, an increase of 7 percentage points since 1999. [ Table 1]. A quarter of all households had access to two or more cars, which also shows a 7 percentage point increase since 1999 (Figure 1).
Figure 1: Household car access by year, 1999 - 2007
3.2 Single pensioner households were the most likely not to have any access to a car in 2007, compared to 10 - 12 per cent for families and large adult households. [ Table 15].
3.3 Over two-thirds of all respondents had a full driving licence in 2007, an increase of 5 percentage points since 1999. Women were less likely to have a full driving licence compared to their male counterparts (60 per cent and 78 per cent, respectively). Almost four out of five respondents aged between 30 and 59 held a full driving licence, whereas 27 - 35 per cent of 17 - 19 year olds and over 80s held a full driving licence, respectively. As younger age groups are more likely to be in education they are less likely to be able to afford to own a car. Over 80s may not be able to hold a licence due to health reasons. [ Table 3].
Frequency of driving
3.4 Sixty-one per cent of respondents drove at least once a week, and the majority drove on a daily basis (45 per cent), a trend that has been stable since 2003. 1 [ Table 4].
3.5 Self employed respondents were the most likely to drive every day whereas permanently sick/disabled respondents and out of work respondents (either due to sickness or unemployment) were the least likely to drive everyday. This may be due to a lack of disposable income compared to other respondent groups. [ Table 17].
3.6 Respondents aged 30 - 49 were the most likely to have driven every day than younger and older respondents, and men were more likely to have driven every day than women (Figure 2).
Figure 2: Adults (aged 17+) with a full driving licence and frequency of driving, 2007
Income
3.7 Car access was found to be dependent on annual net household income (Figure 3), i.e. car access increased as income increased. Households in deprived areas were less likely to have access a car than households in less deprived areas (44 per cent and 87 per cent with access to one or more cars, respectively). [ Table 15].
3.8 Driving licence possession increased as household income increased and respondents in more deprived areas were less likely to have a full driving licence than less deprived areas. Unsurprisingly rural areas had significantly higher percentages of people with full driving licences than other areas. [ Table 16]. This may be due to the fact that rural areas have a poorer provision of public transport than urban areas and thus car use is more predominant.
3.9 Frequency of driving increased as income increased, i.e. respondents on high household incomes (over £40,000 p.a.) were over three times more likely to drive every day than respondents on low household incomes (up to £10,000 p.a.). Frequency of driving also increased as deprivation decreased, which may also be linked to income. [ Table 17].
Figure 3: Household car access by annual net household income, 2007
Urban/rural
3.10 Rural areas were more likely to have access to a car than urban areas, which may reflect the isolated nature of rural households and the need to have access to a car to access key services such as food shopping, banking and medical facilities. [ Table 15].
3.11 Respondents in large urban areas were least likely to drive frequently (at least once per week) compared to rural areas (51 per cent and 76 - 78 per cent, respectively). This may be due to the lack of public transport provisions in rural areas. [ Table 17].
Adults with mobility problems
3.12 Six per cent of respondents in 2007 had a blue badge, a 2 percentage point increase since 1999 (Figure 4). [ Table 14]. This is consistent with Transport Scotland data showing 5.6 per cent of the adult population to have a blue badge (236,568 blue badges issued by March 2007; GROS mid-year 2007 population estimate of 4,227,249).
Comparisons with Great Britain
3.13 A similar pattern in car ownership follows at GB level: the National Travel Survey 2007 ( NTS07) 2 found that a quarter of households had no access to a car and 32 per cent had access to two or more cars. It also found car ownership to increase as income increased and that rural areas were more likely to own a car than urban areas.
3.14 At GB level, 71 per cent of households had a full driving licence, men were more likely to own a licence than women (80 per cent and 63 per cent, respectively, NTS07) and 30 - 59 year-olds were the most likely group to own a licence (81 - 83 per cent), slightly higher than the SHS Scottish results.
Figure 4: Adults with limited mobility, 2007
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