1. Main points
1.1 About 69% of adults' reported journeys in 2004 were by car or van: 53% as a driver, and 16% as a passenger. 15% were by foot, 10% were bus journeys, 2% were taxi/minicab journeys and 2% were by rail (paragraph 4.3.1).
1.2 The modes of travel differed between the sexes: 62% of journeys by men were as a driver of a car or van compared with 45% of journeys by women, and 21% of journeys by women were as a passenger in a car or van in contrast to 9% of journeys by men (paragraph 4.3.1).
1.3 There were also big differences between age groups: the main mode was as a driver of a car or van for 17% of journeys by adults in the 16-19 age group and 25% of journeys by people aged 80+, compared with 58-63% of journeys by adults in the 30-59 age-groups (paragraph 4.3.2).
1.4 The modes of travel varied with the purpose of the journey. In 2004, 60% of commuting journeys were as a driver of a car or van, as were 70% of escort journeys and 76% of business journeys compared with only 33% of journeys by adults going out to eat or drink and 35% of adults' journeys to and from education (paragraph 4.3.3).
1.5 The percentage of journeys which were made as a driver of a car or van rose from 29% for adults in households with an annual net income of up to £10,000 p.a. to 71% for adults in the "over £40,000" band. Also, the percentage of journeys made by bus was 20% for those in the lowest income band, compared to 2% for those in the highest (paragraph 4.3.4).
1.6 There were marked differences between different types of area: 20% of journeys made by residents of the most deprived 20% of areas of Scotland were on foot, compared to 11-13% in the least deprived 40% of areas; 44% of journeys by adults who lived in large urban areas were made as the driver of a car/van, compared with 66-68% for those who lived in rural areas (paragraph 4.3.5).
1.7 The proportion of reported journeys made as the driver of a car has increased over six years, from 49.9% in 1999 to 52.7% in 2004. The proportion of journeys made on foot has decreased from 19.5% in 1999 to 15.3% in 2004 (paragraph 4.3.8).
1.8 Overall, most adults' journeys reported in 2004 were for commuting (25%) or shopping (23%). There was some variation with sex: 26% of journeys by women were for the purpose of shopping compared with 19% of men's journeys. Commuting was the purpose of 27% of journeys by men, and 23% of women's journeys (paragraph 4.4.1). Self-employed people made 16% of their journeys in the course of business (paragraph 4.4.2).
1.9 A third of adults' reported journeys were less than 2 km "as the crow files": 18% of reported journeys were less than 1 km, and 15% of journeys were at least 1 km but less than 2 km long, whereas only 5% of journeys were 40 km and over (paragraph 5.1.1).
1.10 In 2004, the overall average (mean) journey distance was over 10 km, whereas the median distance was only about 3.8 km: i.e. half of all journeys were about 3.8 km or less. (paragraph 5.2.1).
1.11 The median distance travelled varied with journey purpose: it was about 13 km for business journeys compared with 5.5 km for commuting journeys and less than 3 km for shopping trips (paragraph 5.2.2). And, the median distances for journeys made by adults who lived in rural areas were over 8 km, markedly higher than the about 3 km for journeys by residents of urban areas (paragraph 5.2.4).
1.12 There were slightly fewer journeys on Sundays (11% of journeys) compared with 14-16% of journeys on each of the other days of the week (paragraph 4.2.1). There were proportionally more shopping journeys on a Saturday (23% of all shopping journeys compared with 11-15% on each of the other days), and more journeys to visit friends and relatives at the weekends: 17% on Saturdays and 19% on Sundays compared with 12-15% on each of the other days of the week (paragraph 4.2.3).
1.13 People of different ages tend to travel at different times of the day. For example, around 17-20% of journeys by adults in the 16-59 age-groups started between 7 a.m. and 9:30 a.m. compared with 7-12% for people aged 60+. About three-quarters of journeys by the 70+s started between 9:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. compared with about half of all journeys by all adults (paragraph 6.1.1). Journey start time also varies with the purpose of the journey. About a third of journeys for the purposes of "commuting", "business" and "education" started between 7 a.m. and 9:30 a.m. compared with much smaller percentages for other purposes (paragraph 6.1.2).
1.14 There were considerable differences in reported journey duration between the main modes of travel: for example, in 2004, 34% of walking journeys, 30% of cycling journeys, 27-29% of car or van journeys and 36% of taxi/minicab journeys took 5 to 10 minutes compared with 8% of bus journeys (paragraph 6.2.1). There was also variation with the purpose and start time of the journey: 22% of business journeys were over 3 hours long compared with 3% of all journeys, and 9% of journeys starting before 7 a.m. took 3 hours and over, compared with 0-1% of journeys starting from 2 p.m. onwards (paragraph 6.2.2).
1.15 60% of car or van drivers' journeys were made unaccompanied. 27% were made with two people in the car (paragraph 7.1). The average number of occupants of a car driven by someone looking after the home or family was 2.1, compared to 1.5 to 1.8 for drivers in other situations (paragraph 7.3). 85% of commuting journeys made as the driver of a car or van were unaccompanied (paragraph 7.4). For 77% of all car or van drivers' journeys starting before 7 a.m., and 74% starting between 7 a.m. and 9:30 a.m., the driver was the sole occupant of the vehicle (paragraph 7.5). The proportion of journeys reported by drivers of cars in which the person was unaccompanied has increased, from 55.5% in 1999 to 59.6% in 2004 (paragraph 7.6).
1.16 Congestion on the roads was worst in the morning before 9 a.m., and in the early evening: 24% of car drivers' journeys which started between 8:00 and 8:59 a.m. on a weekday reportedly suffered delays due to congestion, as did 20-22% of such journeys started between 7:00 and 7:59 a.m. and between 4:00 and 5:59 p.m. Traffic congestion was said to have delayed only 3-4% of car drivers' journeys made by people residing in "remote" small towns and "remote" rural areas, compared to 14% of journeys by drivers living in large urban areas (paragraph 8.2).
1.17 13% of bus or rail journeys which started between 7:00 and 9:30 a.m. on a weekday suffered delays, as did 14% of such journeys started between 4:30 and 6:29 p.m. (paragraph 9.2). 49% of bus journey delays were said to be caused by congestion on the roads, and 30% by the bus arriving late (paragraph 9.3).