2. Background
2.1 This bulletin provides information, collected by the Scottish Household Survey ( SHS) from 1999 to 2005, about the transport facilities available to private households, and about some travel by household members. The topics covered include the availability of cars for private use; people's possession of driving licences and their frequency of driving; people's views on road charging, traffic growth and congestion; expenditure on fuel; people's involvement in road accidents; people's use of motorbikes, mopeds, and scooters; people's use of Traveline and Transport Direct; people's use of and views on local bus and train services; people's possession and use of concessionary fare passes; people's frequency of walking and cycling; travel to work (including reasons for method used, reasons for not using public transport and what else is done on a car journey to work); travel to study; travel to school. Almost all the statistics given here were extracted in August 2006, so will not take account of any subsequent revisions to the SHS database. Other bulletins provide information on ( e.g.) the kinds of journeys made by adults, and the variation in the patterns of transport and travel across Scotland.
2.2 The SHS collects a wide range of information. Annex 2 lists the topics covered by the survey. Some questions are asked about the household as a whole, and all the people in it; some relate only to one randomly-chosen adult (aged 16 or over) member of the household; and some are asked only about one schoolchild (if there is one in the household). Some questions are answered on behalf of the household by the Highest Income Householder (please see section A.4 of the "Notes and Definitions") or his/her spouse/partner; others are answered by the randomly-chosen adult member of the household on behalf of him/herself. The results are weighted to take account of differences in selection probabilities. As with all such surveys, factors such as sampling variability and non-response bias may affect the results (see section A.13). And, as it is a survey of private households, the SHS does not cover some sections of the population - for example, it does not collect information about many students, such as those who live in halls of residence (see section B.2.3 of the background information about the survey).
2.3 The main changes in this edition are the inclusion of 14 new tables, mainly for the topics which were introduced into the questionnaire at the start of 2005 (road taxes and charges, traffic growth, congestion, injury road accidents, motorcycles, use of concessionary fare passes, other things done on a car journey to work, Traveline Scotland). This bulletin also contains information on some topics which were covered in earlier editions but not in the previous edition (expenditure on fuel, reasons for choice of mode of travel to work, travel to study). Some tables from the previous edition have not been included for various reasons ( e.g. to make way for the new tables, or because the results will not have changed by much from those appearing in a previous edition of this publication). Annex 1 shows which topics have been analysed in each of the Transport Statistics bulletins published to date. It also shows how some questions have been dropped, or asked in a simplified form, in later years, in order to make "space" in the questionnaire for other topics which will provide more useful information.
2.4 The main sections of this bulletin present SHS results on a range of topics:
Section Topics
3 - Cars, buses and bicycles available to households
4 - Driving licences and frequency of driving- people aged 17+
5 - Views on motoring taxes and charges, traffic growth and congestion - adults (16+)
6 - Injury road accidents - adults (aged 16+)
7 - Use of motorbikes, mopeds and scooters - people aged 17+
8 - Use of Traveline Scotland and Transport Direct - adults (16+)
9 - Use of and views on local bus services and train services, and possession and use of concessionary fare passes - adults (16+)
10 - Walking and cycling - adults (16+)
11 - Travel to work - employed adults (16+)
12 - Travel to place of study - adults (16+) in full-time education
13 - Travel to school - pupils in full-time education at school
14 - Adults (16+) with limited mobility
These are followed by
Tables A to L (time-series) and 1 to 27
Section A: Notes and Definitions
Section B: The Scottish Household Survey
Section C: Errors in the Previous Edition
Annex 1: SHS Transport-related topics analysed in SHS bulletins
Annex 2: Topics covered by the SHS
Chart A: Number of cars available for private use by members of the household by annual net household income
Chart B: Number of cars available for private use by members of the household
