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Scottish Household Survey Travel Diary results

2. Main points

2.1 In 1999/2000, 75% of adults said that they had gone somewhere on the previous day. The percentage is highest (82%) for those in the 20-29 and 30-39 age-groups, and lowest (40%) for the 80+ age-group. Overall, men were slightly more likely to have travelled than women: 77% of men made a journey on the previous day compared with 73% of women. (Section 3.1)

2.2 Almost two-thirds of adults’ reported journeys were by car or van: 50% as a driver, and 16% as a passenger. 19% of journeys were made on foot, 10% were bus journeys, 2% were taxi/minicab journeys and 1% were by rail. (Section 4.2)

2.3 The modes of travel differed between the sexes: 60% of journeys by men were as a driver of a car or van compared with 42% of journeys by women, and 22% of journeys by women were as a passenger in a car or van in contrast to 10% of journeys by men. The modes of travel varied with the purpose of the journey. 58% of commuting journeys were as a driver of a car or van, as where 68% of escort journeys and 72% of business journeys, compared with only 27% of journeys by people going to eat or drink and 31% of journeys to or from education. (Section 4.2)

2.4 Overall most journeys were for commuting (23%) or shopping (23%). There was some variation by sex: 26% of journeys by women were for the purpose of shopping compared to 19% of men’s journeys. Commuting was the purpose of 25% of journeys reported by men, and 20% of women’s journeys. Self-employed people made 18% of their journeys in the course of business. (Section 4.3)

2.5 Over a third of reported journeys were less than 2 km "as the crow files": 19% were less than 1km and 16% of journeys were at least 1km but less than 2 km long compared with only 5% of journeys which were 40 km and over. (Section 5.1)

2.6 The overall average (mean) journey distance is 9.7 km, whereas the median distance is only 3.7 km: half of all journeys were 3.7 km or less. Men’s journeys had a median length of 4.2 km and women’s a median 3.2 km. There was more variation in median distance by age: those in the 16-19 age-group travelled a median 3.1 km compared to those aged 80+ who travelled a median 2 km and those in the 30-39 and 40-49 age-groups who travelled a median 4.1 km. (Section 5.2)

2.7 There were also differences in the median distance travelled by journey purpose: a median 9.6 km for business journeys compared with 5.1 km for commuting journeys and 2.7 km for shopping trips. The median distances for journeys made by people who lived in rural areas were markedly higher than the overall median of 3.7 km, being 7.9 km for "accessible" rural areas and 7.3 km for "remote" rural areas. (Section 5.2)

2.8 People of different ages tend to travel at different times of the day. For example, around 17% of journeys by adults in the 16-59 age-groups started from 7am to 9:30am compared to 6% for people aged 80+. Similarly, 25% of journeys by 16-19 year olds started from 6:30pm onwards in contrast to 7% of journeys by the over 80’s. 36% of taxi / minicab journeys started after 6:30pm, as did 51% of journeys for the purposes of eating or drinking. (Section 6.1)

2.9 There was considerable difference in journey duration by main mode of travel: 27% of walking journeys and 34% of taxi/minicab journeys took 5 to 10 minutes compared with 7% of bus journeys and 4% of rail journeys. 23% of bus journeys were 21 to 30 minutes long compared to 15% of walking journeys and 15% of driving journeys. (Section 6.2)

2.10 There were fewer journeys on Sundays (12% of journeys compared to 14-16% of journeys on each of the other days of the week). Only 5% of bus journeys and 4% of rail journeys are on a Sunday, reflecting the reduced services then. 24% of taxi/minicab journeys were made on Saturdays. The day of week of travel also varies with the purpose of the journey, with more shopping journeys on a Saturday (20% of all shopping journeys compared to 11-16% on each of the other days), and 26% of journeys for the purpose of eating or drinking being made on Saturdays. (Section 6.3)

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