PREFACE
Introduction and Years Covered
This is the 2007 edition of "Scottish Transport Statistics", and is the twenty sixth publication in the series. In most cases, it provides figures for the years up to 2006, or up to the 2006-07 financial year. However, in some cases, the latest statistics available at the time of going to press were for an earlier year, or for a later year. In cases where figures for two years have become available since the previous edition was published, they are given for both years. Where tables cover a run of years, the aim is that they should provide figures for eleven years (e.g. for each year from 1996 to 2006, inclusive) to enable the reader to see how the latest year's figure compares with that of ten years earlier. However, this is not always possible.
"Scottish Transport Statistics" is one of a series of Transport Statistics publications, most of which focus on particular aspects of transport and cover them in depth. The individual publications that comprise the series are described in the section on "Transport Statistics publications" towards the end of this edition. A comprehensive statistical picture of transport activity is described in the compendium "Scottish Transport Statistics" volume, the "Main Transport Trends" bulletin and the "Key Transport Statistics" card. These provide figures on a wide range of topics, including: vehicles licensed, traffic volumes and road accidents; the numbers of passengers on bus, rail, air and ferry services; travel to work, travel to school, household car availability and other key findings from the Scottish Household Survey and the National Travel Survey; and the tonnages carried by road, rail and waterborne freight. However, the information on such topics contained in "Scottish Transport Statistics" is much more detailed than just the key statistics and main trends - for example, it includes analyses of: traffic volumes by road class, by vehicle type and by local authority area; air passenger numbers by airport, by destination and by type of service; and the modes of transport used for travel to work by age-group, by household income band and by urban/rural category.
The Structure of the Publication
First comes a "Summary" section, containing information about all modes of transport, which provides a compact view of the trends over the past 10-or-so years, some comparisons with the figures for Great Britain (or the UK) as a whole, and the longer-term trends (in some cases, as far back as 1960) in some key statistics.
This is followed by 12 chapters, each on a specific topic, each starting with these sections:
1. Introduction - coverage, and changes to the tables and charts;
2. Main Points - key statistics, and some of the more interesting points;
3. Notes and Definitions - background, insights and qualifications;
4. Sources - descriptions of the sources of the statistics;
5. Further Information - e.g. other publications, and contacts.
The "International Comparisons" section then compares some figures for Scotland with those for the other EU countries, and with the figures for the EU as a whole. Finally, there are some other short sections, including:
- brief notes on some recent transport research projects;
- details of other Scottish Government Transport Statistics publications; and
- a description of what is available from the SG Transport Statistics Web site (including, in due course, updated versions of some of this edition's tables and charts).