This item was published during the term of a previous administration that ended in April 2007
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Travel by Scottish Residents
22/01/2007
People are travelling more, and further, than 20 or 30 years ago, according to a new statistical bulletin.
Some of the main findings of Travel by Scottish Residents: some National Travel Survey results for 2004/2005 and earlier years are:
Average distance travelled, and average time spent travelling, per person per year
- On average, Scottish residents travelled an estimated 7,332 miles per person per year (or about 20 miles per day) within Great Britain in the two-year period 2004/2005.
- The average distance travelled per person per year has risen by more than 3,000 miles (75 per cent) since 1975/1976. This is due to the estimate of the average number of trips per person per year increasing by 15 per cent, and the estimate of the average length of a trip rising by 53 per cent. However, there appears to have been only a slight increase since the mid-1990s (which could be the result of sampling variability).
- The estimate of the average time spent travelling per person increased by 17 per cent from 289 hours per year (or 48 minutes per day) in 1975/1976 to 339 hours per year (56 minutes per day) in 2004/2005. Again, there has been little change since the mid-1990s.
Modes of transport, journey purposes, and average journey length
- In 2004/2005, cars accounted for about three quarters (around 5,400 miles) of the estimated total distance travelled per person. No other mode of travel accounted for more than 10 per cent: local bus (436 miles) surface rail (420 miles) each accounted for 6 per cent. There were, on average, 196 miles walked and 26 miles cycled per person per year. Cars accounted for 90 per cent of the increase in the distance travelled since 1985/1986.
- Between 1985/1986 and 2004/2005, the estimated number of trips per person made as a car driver rose by 78 per cent, and there were falls of 44 per cent for walking and 28 per cent for local bus.
- In 2004/2005, an estimated 73 per cent of all trips under a mile were made by foot, and 23 per cent were made by car. For trips under 2 miles, 54 per cent were made by foot and 39 per cent by car.
- Shopping was the most frequent purpose of travel in 2004/2005, accounting for 20 per cent of the estimated average of 1,014 trips per person per year. Commuting accounted for 17 per cent of trips and visiting friends at home accounted for 12 per cent of trips.
- Between 1985/1986 and 2004/2005, the estimate of the average length of a trip rose from 4.8 miles to 7.2 miles, with increases from 2.9 miles to 4.9 miles for shopping trips, and from 5.4 miles to 8.1 miles for commuting trips.
Variation with sex, age, economic status and household car availability
- Men and women made about the same number of trips, on average, but men travelled an estimated 34 per cent further. The main mode of travel for men was as the driver of a car, accounting for 66 per cent of the distance they covered in 2004/2005, whereas only 42 per cent of the distance travelled by women was as a car driver. Women travelled further than men as car passengers and by local bus. Since 1985/1986, the percentage increase in the average distance travelled has been greater for women than for men.
- Compared to the overall average distance per person per year, children travelled an estimated 36 per cent less, people aged 60 and over travelled 30 per cent less, and those aged 30-59 travelled 28 per cent more. Since 1985/1986, the percentage increase in the average distance travelled has been greatest for those aged 60 and over.
- People working part-time made an estimated 25 per cent more trips than the average for all adults, those working full-time made 8 per cent more trips than the average, and retired people made 23 per cent fewer trips.
- People in households with cars averaged an estimated 7 per cent more than the overall average number of trips per person per year; people in households without a car averaged 25 per cent fewer trips than the overall average.
Frequency of walking, travel by holders of concessionary fare passes, and travel to school
- Over a third of people in the survey said that they walked for at least 20 minutes (without stopping) at least three times per week, and a further fifth did so at least once or twice a week. However, nearly a quarter of people walked for at least 20 minutes less than once a year.
- People aged 60 and over who held a concessionary fare pass made almost seven times as many local bus trips per person as those without a pass, 79 per cent more walking trips and 22 per cent fewer trips as a car driver.
- The percentage of pupils walking to school fell from an estimate of 69 per cent in 1985/1986 to 54 per cent in 2004/2005. Over the same period, the percentage of pupils going by car rose from 6 per cent to 23 per cent.
The National Travel Survey is not designed to produce annual figures for Scotland, so the samples for a number of years must be combined in order to produce Scottish results.
1975/1976 is the first period for which any overall results are available, and 1985/1986 is the first for which the main breakdowns used subsequently are available.
Since 2002, the sample has included about 750-800 Scottish households per year and, although they were chosen at random, the people who take part in the survey may not turn out to be a representative cross-section of the population of Scotland.
The results are therefore subject to sampling errors, and should be regarded as broad indications (rather than precise measures) of people's patterns of use of transport.
Travel by Scottish residents is one of a series of Transport Statistics publications, most of which focus on particular aspects of transport and cover them in depth.