Statistical Bulletin Trn/2005/2
Scottish Household Survey Travel Diary results for 2003
6.1 Start time of reported journeys
6.1.1 Table 8 shows the start time in bands of reported journeys for 2003. For reasons given in paragraph A5.2, the start time is not known for about 4% of journeys in 1999. Paragraph A5.2 also explains why journey start and end times will not be precise. Only 3% of all journeys started before 7am; thereafter there were similar percentages (15-18%) starting in each of the time bands chosen. There was a little variation in start time of journeys by sex with the difference between the sexes not greater than 3 percentage points for all bands. There is much more variation in journey start time with age as shown in Chart G. Around 16-19% of journeys by adults in the 16-59 age-groups started from 7 a.m. to 9:30 a.m., compared with 7-12% for people aged 60+. Similarly, 23% of journeys by 16-19 year olds started from 6:30 p.m. onwards in contrast to 8% of journeys by the over 70s. About three-quarters of journeys by the over 80s started between 9:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. compared with half of all journeys by adults.
6.1.2 Journey start times varied with the main mode of travel used. 39% of taxi/minicab journeys and 21% of passenger car or van journeys started from 6:30 p.m. onwards compared with only 9% of bus and 10% of rail journeys. 27% of rail journeys started from 7 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. and about 58% of all walking journeys started after 9:30 a.m. to before 4:30 p.m. Journey start time also varies greatly with the purpose of the journey. About a third of journeys for the purposes of "commuting", "business" and "education" started from 7 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. compared with much smaller percentages for all other purposes, and only between 6% and 9% of these journeys start from 6:30 p.m. onwards. In contrast, 46% of eating and drinking journeys, 40% of sport and entertainment journeys, and 27% of visiting friends and relatives journeys started from 6:30 p.m. onwards.
6.1.3 There was not much variation in journey start time with urban / rural classification. Chart H illustrates that start times of journeys varied depending on whether the day of travel was at the weekend or on a weekday: the highest percentages of journeys on weekdays started between 8 a.m. and 9 a.m. and between 3 p.m. and 6 p.m. This is in contrast to the start time of journeys at the weekend where few started before 9 a.m. and the highest percentages started between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. Comparisons of the results for the five years are affected slightly by the start time not being known for about 4% of journeys in 1999, but it appears that there is not much difference between the years.
6.2
Duration of journeys6.2.1 The durations of the journeys made were derived from the start and end times collected by the interviewer. For the reasons given in paragraph A5.2, the duration is not known for about 7% of journeys in 1999. The top part of Table 9 shows the duration (in minutes) of reported journeys for 2003. ( Paragraph A5.2 also indicates why these will not be precise). It should be remembered that the interviewer says there is no need to mention any stages or journeys which were less than a quarter of a mile, or less than five minutes on foot (see paragraph A2.3). 2% of all reported journeys were less than 5 minutes long, 26% were 5 to 10 minutes long, 31% were 11 to 20 minutes long and only 2% of all journeys took 180 minutes (3 hours) or over. There was very little variation in journey duration with sex or with age. However, there was considerable variation in duration with main mode of travel: 32% of walking journeys, 27% of cycling journeys, 23-29% of car journeys and 45% of taxi/minicab journeys took 5 to 10 minutes compared with 9% of bus journeys and 1% of rail journeys (although the rail results are based on a small sample so may not be reliable). About 52% of bus journeys were 21 to 60 minutes long compared with about 30-34% of journeys by car or van and about 26% of walking journeys. While most modes of transport had no more than 1-3% of journeys over 3 hours: 7% of rail journeys and 16% of "other" journeys were over 3 hours long - although the results for rail and "other" journeys are based on small sample numbers.
6.2.2 Journey time also varies with journey purpose. In particular, 23% of business journeys were over 3 hours long compared with 2% of all journeys. Also, 33% of escort journeys and 32% of journeys for the purpose of education were 5 to 10 minutes long compared with 12% of business journeys and 21% of commuting journeys. Journey duration varied between urban and rural areas. 43% of journeys made by people who lived in "remote" small towns were 5 to 10 minutes long compared with 23-24% of journeys by adults living in large urban areas or rural areas. There was some variation in journey duration with the start time of the journey. 8% of journeys starting before 7 a.m. took 3 hours and over compared with only 0-1% of journeys starting from 2 p.m. onwards.
6.2.3 The results at the bottom of Table 9 do not show much difference in duration of journeys between the five years. The results for 1999 may not be completely comparable to those for later years due to the duration not being known for about 7% of journeys (see section A5.2 for more details).
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