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Household Transport in 1999 and 2000: Some Scottish Household Survey results
3. Cars, motor vehicles, buses and bicycles(Tables 1 to 3; Charts A to D)
3.1 The interviewer asks about any motor vehicles normally available for private use by members of the household. Table 1 shows the results. The first row of the table shows that, in 1999 and 2000 combined, 36% of households did not have a car available for private use, 45% had one car, 16% had two cars, and 2% had three or more cars - so, almost two-thirds (64%) of households had one or more cars: the same as the percentage with one or more motor vehicles. The numbers in italics at the right-hand end of the first row show that these results are produced from the answers given for 30,227 households. The next two rows give the results for 1999 and 2000 separately, and they show very little difference between the two years. The rest of the results in this table relate to 1999 and 2000 interviews combined. As so few of the households without a car had any other type of motor vehicle, the next section looks at the number of cars available to households.
3.2 Availability of cars
3.2.1 Table 1 shows that the availability of cars differed greatly between types of household: for example, only 24% of single pensioner households, and 33% of single parent households, had one or more cars, compared with 87% of small family households. 15% of large adult households had three or more cars. The next block of figures shows considerable variation with social class (households are counted on the basis of the social class of the Highest Income Householder): for example, only 44% of "unskilled" households had a car, compared with 94% of "professional" households. About 47% of "professional" households had two or more cars. There was also considerable variation with annual net household income: only 32% of households with a net income of up to 5,000 per year had at least one car, compared with 98% of households with a net income of over 40,000 per year. 68% of the households with an annual net income of over 40,000 had two or more cars. Chart A illustrates how car availability rises as household income increases.
3.2.2 The middle of Table 1 shows how the position varies between those living in "urban" and "rural" areas, using a six-way classification that was developed for the analysis of the SHS results. In this classification, a "small town" has a population between 3,000 and 10,000, and an area is described as "accessible" if it is within 30 minutes drive of a settlement with a population of over 10,000 (otherwise it is described as "remote"). A "large urban area" is a settlement with a population of over 125,000. More details of the classification are given in section A.11. In 1999/2000, 53% of households in large urban areas had cars compared to 79-80% of those in rural areas.
3.2.3 The last three blocks of figures in Table 1 show that there is variation with property type, tenure and property size (as indicated by the number of bedrooms). Only 40% of "flat or maisonette" households had access to a car whereas, 93% of "detached" households had access to a car. 73% of households living in a property that was owned outright had access to a car compared to 27% of households renting from housing associations. Larger properties tended to have a higher percentage of households with access to a car (91% for 5- or 6-bedroom properties) whereas smaller properties had a lower percentage of households with access to a car (29% for one-bedroom properties).
3.3 The accessibility and frequency of bus services
3.3.1 The SHS interviewer asks how long it would take him/her to walk to the nearest bus stop (or place where one can get on a bus). Table 1 shows that in 1999/2000, 85% of all households were said to be up to 6 minutes walk away from a bus stop. The interviewers also asked about the frequency of service at the nearest bus stop (or place that one could get on a bus). Overall, 20% of householders said that there was at least one bus every 13 minutes. There was considerable difference between urban and rural areas. About 88-90% of households in urban areas were said to be within a 6 minute walk of a bus stop compared to 55% of households in "remote" rural areas. The frequency of the service was said to be better in large urban areas with 36% of households saying there was at least one bus every 13 minutes in contrast to 3% of those in small "accessible" towns.
3.3.2 The detailed tables on the accessibility and frequency of bus services that appeared in the first edition of "Household Transport: some Scottish Household Survey results" now appear in the Statistical Bulletin "Bus and Coach Statistics: 2000-01", along with information from other sources on buses and coaches.
3.4 Bicycles which can be used by adults
3.4.1 The interviewer asks whether the household has any bicycles which can be used by adults. Table 1 shows that, in 1999/2000, 33% of households had one or more bicycles. This percentage varied greatly with the type of the household, from 5% for single pensioner households to 61% for large family households (see Chart B). It also varied with social class (from 27% for "unskilled" households to 60% for "professional" households) and with annual net household income (from about a sixth of households with up to 10,000 per year to about two-thirds of those with 30,000 or more).
3.4.2 Looking at different types of area, under a quarter of households in large urban areas had bicycles which adults could use, compared with around two fifths of those in SHS-classified small towns and rural areas. For different types of property: 52% of households living in detached houses had bicycles which adults could use compared with 20% of "flat or maisonette" households. There was also variation with property size. 14% of one-bedroom households had bicycles in contrast to 62% of 5- or 6-bedroom households.
3.5 Motor vehicles - types, ownership, mileage and number available compared to 12 months ago
3.5.1 Table 2 shows how the type and ownership of vehicles varied with the annual net income of the household. A household with a mixture of vehicle types and/or ownership is counted in the first of the rows which is appropriate to it - for example, a household with a privately-owned van and a company car would be counted in the row labelled "Company car, no private car". The percentage of households with both a private car and a company car increases with income from less than 1% for those with annual net incomes of up to 5,000, to almost 18% for those with an annual net household income of over 30,000. The percentage of households which had a company car but no privately-owned car was 2% overall, but Chart C illustrates that this was higher (between almost 3.5% and 4.5%) for those with annual net incomes over 15,000.
3.5.2 In 2000 only, the SHS interviewer asked whether the household has access to the same number of motor vehicles as the same time 12 months ago. The lower part of Table 2 shows that, for the majority of households there was no change (91%). 4.1% had fewer available and 4.5% had more available. There was not much change by income band for those households that had fewer motor vehicles available (3-4% of each sub-group). There was more change for those who had more available, from 2% of those with an annual net household income of up to 10,000, compared to 7-9% of those with an annual net household income of over 20,000.
3.5.3 The interviewer asks the Highest Income Householder (or his/her spouse/partner) to estimate how many thousand miles each vehicle is driven each year (this may include business mileage). Table 3 shows there is variation with income in vehicle mileage per annum. Chart D illustrates this, for example, 6% of vehicles in a household with an annual net income of up to 5,000 had gone over 16,000 miles compared to 19% of vehicles in a household with an income of over 30,000.
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