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Scottish Household Survey Travel Diary results

4. How and why people travel (Tables 2 to 9; Charts B and C)

4.1 Introduction

4.1.1 In cases where the randomly-chosen adult says that he or she made any journeys or trips out of the house on the previous day, the interviewer asks for details of each journey. When a journey consists of a number of stages (e.g. the person went by bus to a station, and then caught a train to, say, Manchester), the interviewer records details of each stage. The interviewer says that there is no need to mention any stages (or journeys) which were less than a quarter of a mile, or less than five minutes on foot, such as a short walk to a bus stop.

4.1.2 The information recorded about each journey includes:

• the type of journey (see paragraph A4.3);
• the purpose of the journey (such as travel to or from work - see paragraph A3.3);
• the mode of transport used (eg walking - see paragraph A3.4);
• if the person travelled by car or van, the number of occupants (including the driver);
• the place where the journey started, and the place where it finished;
• the times that the journey started and finished.

4.1.3 In cases where a journey consists of a number of stages, the interviewer asks for information about the mode of transport and (if appropriate) the number of car occupants, and about the start and end places and times of each of the stages (apart from any stages of less than a quarter of a mile or less than five minutes on foot). In such cases, the main mode of transport for the journey is defined, as in the GB National Travel Survey, as the mode of transport which was used for the longest (in distance) stage of the journey - please see paragraph A3.5.

4.2 Main mode of transport

4.2.1 Table 2 analyses the main mode of travel for the journeys that were recorded. In 1999/2000, the main mode of travel for 50% of journeys was as a driver of a car or van. 19% of journeys were made on foot, 16% as a passenger in a car or van, 10% were bus journeys, 2% were taxi/minicab journeys and 1% were by rail. The main mode 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. There were also slight differences between the sexes for journeys by foot (20% of journeys by women compared with 17% for men) and by bus (11% of journeys by women compared with 8% of journeys by men).

4.2.2 There were also big differences between age-groups in the mode of travel used. 30% of journeys for people aged 16-19 were by foot, as were 31% of journeys for those aged 80+. This compares with 16% for the 30-39 age-group and 14% for 40-49 year olds. The main mode of travel was as a driver of a car or van for 14% of journeys by adults in the 16-19 age-group and 23% of journeys by people aged 80+, compared with 61% of journeys by adults in the 40-49 age-group. Bus was the main mode of travel for 6% of journeys by 30-39 and 40-49 year olds in contrast to 21% and 18% of journeys by those aged 16-19 and 70 and over.

4.2.3 The main mode of travel varied with the purpose of the journey. 58% of commuting journeys were as a driver of a car or van, as were 68% of escort journeys and 72% of business journeys, compared with only 27% of journeys by people going out to eat or drink and 31% of journeys to or from education. Only 6% of business journeys were by foot and 5% were by bus. There were higher percentages of journeys by foot and by bus when the journey purpose was education (27% and 24% respectively). There was also some variation with the current situation of the adult. The main mode of travel was as a driver of a car or van for 62% of journeys by people in full-time employment compared with 26% of journeys made by adults in higher/further education, and 29% of journeys by the unemployed. The main mode of travel also varied markedly between the social classes and the income groups. For example, the percentage of journeys which were made as the driver of a car or van rose from 28% for those in households with an annual net income of up to £5,000 p.a. to 67-68% for adults in the "over £30,000" bands.

4.2.4 There are differences between urban and rural areas in the main mode of travel used. This is illustrated in chart B which shows that 42% of journeys by adults who live in "large urban areas" were made as a driver of a car or van whereas in "remote rural areas" 65% of journeys were made as a driver of a car or van.

4.2.5 Tables 3 and 4 show the purposes of the reported journeys which were made by each main mode of travel. Table 3 shows this for journeys by adults who have a full driving licence and live in a household which has access to one or more motor vehicles; Table 4 shows this for other adults. Similarly, Tables 5 and 6 show the main modes of travel used for each purpose: Table 5 for journeys by adults who have a full driving licence and live in a household which has access to one or more motor vehicles, and Table 6 for other adults. Tables 3 and 4 show some differences between the purposes of journeys made by each group: 25% of all journeys reported by those with a full driving licence and access to 1+ motor vehicles were for commuting, and 20% for shopping, in contrast to the second group’s 19% of journeys for commuting and 29% for shopping. As the sample numbers for some modes of transport are not large, some of the percentages in the bodies of these tables may be subject to relatively large percentage sampling errors. Chart C illustrates the differences between Tables 5 and Table 6. Overall there are big differences between the percentages of journeys which were made on foot: 10% of journeys for those who have a full driving licence and access to a motor vehicle in contrast to 38% for other adults. Similarly there are differences between the percentages of journeys made as a driver: 73% of journeys for those adults who have a full driving licence and access to a motor vehicle in contrast to 4% of other adults.

Chart C: Journeys reported by adults (16+) -
(a) adults with full driving licences who live in h'holds with 1+ motor vehicles and
(b) adults who do not have a full driving licence or who lice in h'holds without vehicles: by main mode: 1999/2000

4.2.6 Table 7 analyses the number of occupants reported for car/van stages of journeys by whether the person was a driver or a passenger. 44% of car/van stages reported by interviewees had one occupant, 36% of stages had 2 occupants, and 20% of stages had 3 or more occupants. Not surprisingly, car/van occupancy tended to be higher for stages which were reported by people who were passengers than for stages which were reported by people who were drivers. It should be noted that these figures do not represent the true levels of occupancy of cars and vans that would be found by the observation of vehicles, because, for these figures, the likelihood of a particular car trip being reported in the survey increases with the number of adults involved. Therefore, using these figures, one would over-estimate car occupancy. It is not possible to adjust these figures to take account of this, because it is not known how many of the occupants were children. In addition, these figures do not take account of the lengths of the different stages, and SHS results do not cover journeys made by tourists and others from outwith Scotland.

4.2.7 Table 8 shows that there was little variation between the quarters in the proportions of journeys which were made by each mode of transport. Some of the apparently small changes between quarters may just be the result of sampling variability. Others will reflect seasonal patterns, such as the increase in cycling in the summer.

4.3 Purpose of reported journeys

4.3.1 Table 9 details the purpose of journeys. 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. There was more variation by age-group, as one would expect. Commuting accounted for 26-29% of journeys by the 20-59 age-groups compared with much smaller percentages for the over 60 age-groups. The percentage for which the journey purpose is education decreases with age from 16% of journeys by 16-19 year olds to 1% of the 50 and over age-groups. The shopping percentage of journeys seems to increase with age, from 13%, of journeys by 16-19 year olds to 40% of journeys in the 80+ age-group.

4.3.2 Journey purpose varies by current situation (economic status), as one would expect. 39% of journeys made by adults in full-time employment were for commuting compared with 1% of journeys by those who were permanently sick or disabled. Self-employed people made 18% of their journeys in the course of business. Similarly, further and higher education students had the highest percentage of journeys with the purpose of education (26%). In consequence, journey purpose also tends to vary with annual net household income. In particular, the purpose was commuting for 8% of journeys in the up to £5,000 p.a. income group, compared with 24% of journeys in the over £40,000 income group. There is not much variation in journey purpose between different types of area using the urban / rural classification.

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