High Level Summary of Statistics Trend Last update: Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Reasons for Travel
On average, Scots made 1,014 trips per person per year, and travelled 7,376 miles per person per year, within Great Britain in the two-year period 2005/2006, according to the National Travel Survey ( NTS).
The most frequent purposes of trips were shopping with, on average, 216 trips per person per year, commuting (159 trips per person per year), visiting friends/relatives at home (119), "other personal business" (e.g. trips to/from banks, churches, doctors, hairdressers and libraries - 107) and "other escort" (escorting someone other than to/from education - 100).
Commuting trips accounted for an average of 1,306 miles per person per year. (All averages "per person" include children and pensioners, so the average per commuter will be much higher.) The other main purposes were visiting friends/relatives at home (1,092 miles), shopping (1,033 miles), holidays and day trips within GB (1023 miles) and personal travel for business purposes (816 miles).
Since 1985/86, there has been little change in the average number of trips per person per year (it has fluctuated between 972 and 1,112, presumably due to sampling variability). However, the average distance travelled per person per year increased by 2,724 miles - from 4,652 miles in 1985/86 to 7,376 miles in 2005/2006 (with some period-to-period fluctuations attributable to sampling variability). The following purposes together accounted for most of the rise in the average distance travelled per person per year: shopping (up 492 miles); and holidays and day trips (up 469 miles); visiting friends/relatives at home (up 327 miles); commuting (up 326 miles); "escort (other than to/from education)" (up 296 miles) and holidays and day trips (up 469 miles).
The chart shows how the average length of trip has risen, for the purposes for which trips are most often made, over the same period (again, there are some period-to-period fluctuations), and that the overall average length of trip rose from 4.8 miles to 7.3 miles.
The NTS covers travel within Great Britain for personal purposes. It excludes travel in the course of work to convey passengers or to deliver goods. Results are given for periods of two or three years because of the small sample size, and, even then, the figures for some purposes may fluctuate due to sampling variability. In September 2006, the Department for Transport revised the previously-published results for 1995/97 onwards, generally by between 2% and 4%, following the introduction of weighting of the NTS results.
View chart data
Source: Scottish Transport Statistics
Further Information