High Level Summary of Statistics Trend Last update: Thursday, August 23, 2007
Road Traffic
The total volume of traffic on Scotland's roads was at a record level in 2006: 43,880 million vehicle-kilometres. An increase of 3% on the previous year.
Motorways accounted for 15% of all traffic in 2006, trunk A roads for 23%, local authority A roads for 28%, B roads for 9%, C roads for 6% and unclassified roads for 19%.
Cars accounted for 78% of the traffic on Scotland's roads in 2006, light goods vehicles for 13%, heavy goods vehicles for 6%, buses for 1.4%, motorcycles for 0.7% and pedal cycles for 0.6%.
The total volume of traffic on Scotland's roads has tended to increase steadily, with rises of 16% since 1996, 14% since 1997, and 10% since 1999. The slight dip in 2000 was due to the fuel price protests. The volume of traffic on Motorways has grown by 40% since 1996, in part due to the expansion of the Motorway network.
1993 is the first year for which there are figures for the total volume of traffic on Scotland's roads. However, estimates for major roads (Motorways and A roads) are available back to 1983. They show that the volume of traffic on major roads roughly doubled between 1983 and 2006, with growth being more rapid for Motorways than for A roads, due in part to the expansion of the Motorway network.
Source: Scottish Transport Statistics
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