High Level Summary of Statistics Trend Last update: Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Travel to Work
In 2007 sixty-nine percent of people travelled to work by car (or van), 63 per cent as the driver and 6 per cent as a passenger, according to the Scottish Household Survey (SHS). 12 per cent took a bus, 12 per cent walked, 3 per cent went by train and 2 per cent cycled. People who work at or from home are not counted in these figures.
Men were more likely to drive (67 per cent against 60 per cent for women); women were more likely to walk (15 per cent against 9 per cent for men) or go by bus (14 per cent against 10 per cent for men).
The percentage driving to work rose with the income of the household: from 34 per cent for commuters from low-income households (annual net household income of up to £10,000) to 76 per cent of those from high-income households (annual net household income over £40,000). The percentage walking fell from 27 per cent in low-income households to 6 per cent in high-income households, and similarly the percentage using the bus dropped from 26 per cent to 6 per cent.
Around 68-79 per cent of commuters living in rural areas drove, whereas 5-6 per cent went by bus. Large urban areas and remote small towns had the lowest percentages driving to work (54 per cent and 58 per cent respectively) and large urban areas had the highest percentage going by bus (19 per cent).
Since the SHS started in 1999, the percentage driving to work has risen and the percentages who walk or are a passenger in a car has fallen. However, sampling variability may cause some apparent year-to-year fluctuations.
Census results show that, between 1966 and 2001, there was a large rise in the percentage who commute by car (up from 21 per cent to 68 per cent), and large falls in the percentages who use the bus (down from 43 per cent to 12 per cent) and who walk to work (down from 24 per cent to 12 per cent). Over the same period, there was little change in the percentages travelling to work by train and by bicycle, which remained around 3-4 per cent and 1-2 per cent respectively.
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Source: Scottish Transport Statistics
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