Statistical Bulletin Trn/2005/2
Scottish Household Survey Travel Diary results for 2003
12. Car drivers' journeys - purpose by time of day ( Table 17; Chart J)
12.1 The main part of Table 17 shows the journey purpose for all adults who were driving a car at the given time on a weekday. The top row shows that one third of all time spent driving on the road on a weekday between 1999 and 2003 was for the purpose of travelling to or from work. Note that this is calculated on a different basis from the figures in Table 5, which consider only the number of journeys, taking no account of their duration. 14% of time spent on the road during the week was for journeys made during the course of work, 16% was for the purpose of shopping, 8% was for visiting friends or relatives, and 7% was for escort journeys.
12.2
Table 17 shows that the proportion of car drivers on the road making journeys to or from work peaked at over two-thirds of all journeys around 7:30 to 7:45 a.m., and again at close to half of all journeys at around 5:15 p.m. Between 10% and 19% of cars on the road at any time between 6:30 a.m. and 6:45 p.m. were being driven during the course of work. Shopping journeys accounted for between a quarter and a third of cars on the road between 10 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. Visiting friends or relatives accounted for about 9 or 10% of car traffic between 10:00 a.m. and 2:30 p.m., falling to 6-8% until 6:00 p.m., and then rising to account for about 20% of car traffic from 8:00 p.m. onwards. The proportion of car drivers on the road going out for sport or other entertainment also peaked during the evenings, accounting for 8-13% of the car traffic after 6:45 p.m. Similarly, escort journeys accounted for 10-14% of cars on the road after 8:00 p.m., but for only 8% or less of cars on the road around 8:45 a.m. to 9:15 a.m., and for lower percentages earlier in the morning "rush-hour". Journeys for the purpose of education, visiting hospitals or other health services, and eating or drinking did not exceed 5% of the cars on the road at any time of the day.
12.3 The right hand column of Table 17 and Chart J show the number of car drivers on the road at the given time of day as a percentage of all adults who said that they had driven a car that day. There is a tendency for respondents to report journeys as starting and/or ending at "rounded" times (e.g. 8:00 or 8:30). This causes "spikes" in the thin line in the chart, which shows the percentages of people apparently on the road at those times, based on the reported times at which journeys started and finished. The thicker line on Chart J has been smoothed to limit this effect, but small "hiccups" still remain.
12.4 For weekday travel, two peaks are evident on the chart, coinciding with the morning and evening rush hours. Approximately 13-14% of car drivers who were on the road at some time during the day were driving at the morning peak, at about 8:30 a.m. 14-15% of car drivers were driving at the evening peak, around 5:15 p.m. In between the two rush hours, there was a steady increase in the number of car drivers on the road, from about 7% of all who drove that day at 10:00 a.m., to about 11% at 4:00 p.m.