Show me the way to go home

06 September 2010

scrapcar Encouraging sustainable transport is a key element in sustainable development and in the Scottish Government’s drive to reduce carbon emissions. Decisions on how to do this, and rational discussions on the options, depends on statistical information about current transport usage and trends over time – who, when, how, why – and on public attitudes towards different transport modes. Luckily we have a huge amount of detailed information available.

The newly-released Statistical Bulletin, Household Transport in 2009, provides us with much detail about the transport facilities available and used by private households. This comes from analyses of transport-related information in the Scottish Household Survey. Some of the main points were presented in a previous Scottish Government publication which was the subject of an article entitled: Woopah oh yeah yeah!

To give an idea of the range and detail contained in this latest report I’ve listed below some of the facts that attracted my attention (and this is only a tiny proportion of what you’ll find in the document.

Household Transport in 2009

Sixty-seven per cent of respondents used the car to travel to work, of which only six per cent travelled as a passenger (down from 12% in 1999).
Walking and cycling accounted for 15 per cent and public transport 16 per cent of all journeys to work in 2009.
Fifty-eight percent of those travelling to work by car/van said it would not be possible for them to travel to work by public transport. The most common reason being given was ‘no direct route’. For those who could use public transport but chose not to,’ Takes too long’ was the most popular reason cited.
Twenty-six per cent of households had access to two or more cars in 2009, whilst 31 per cent had no access to a car.
Households with only one adult (single adult, single parent & single pensioner) were the least likely to have access to a car in 2009. In particular, 65 per cent of single pensioner households had no access to a car, compared to 10 – 11 per cent for family households.
Forty-one per cent of households in large urban areas had no access to a car. This is more than double that of rural areas. This may reflect the necessity of a car in more rural areas in order to have access to services, such as food shopping and medical facilities
Forty-four per cent of drivers experience road rage directed at them, the majority of whom recalled 1-2 incidents in the past year. Of those experiencing road rage directed at them, a quarter felt there was a threat to their personal safety
Forty-eight per cent of respondents had walked for pleasure in past seven days in 2009, an increase of 9 percentage points since 1999.
Almost fifty per cent of respondents had not walked as a means of transport in the previous seven days in 2008, relatively unchanged since 1999.
Forty-six per cent of respondents used their local bus service in the last month (up from 41% in 2002), with 24 per cent using their local train (up from 15%).
A quarter of respondents had a regular bus service (at least 5 buses an hour) in 2009 (up from 20% in 1999).
Fifty-five per cent of those aged 60 or over used their concessionary pass at least once a month with 32 per cent having a pass but not using it.
In general, people were satisfied with train services offered, their cleanliness and comfort, the ability to find out about tickets and routes and the ease of changing to other forms of transport.
Respondents were least likely to agree ‘fares are good value’ with only 57 per cent of respondents doing so.
A quarter of respondents had a regular bus service (at least 5 buses an hour) in 2009. This is an increase of 6 percentage points since 1999. Eighty-four per cent lived within 6 minutes walk to a bus stop, although this may not be the bus stop that they regularly use. Twenty-three per cent have both, i.e. a regular bus service that is within 6
minutes walk from their house.
Respondents in more deprived areas were more likely to have a good bus service (bus stop within 6 minute walk and 5+ buses per hour) than respondents in the least deprived areas (34% and 22%, respectively).
Forty-seven per cent of adults aged 60 or over and in lower income households (up to £10,000 per year) used their pass at least once a week compared to 30 per cent of those in households with over £20,000 per year.
The most common reasons cited for not cycling to work were ‘don’t have access to a bike’ (37%), ‘too far to cycle’ (30%), ‘weather’ (16%), ‘too many cars’ (14%) and ‘traffic too fast’ (11%). ‘Can’t ride a bike’ and ‘too many cars on the road’ were the most common
answers given for not owning a bike.

I hope your appetite has been whetted for even more information (and there’s facts here relevant to many, many areas of economic, social and environmental policy). You can get it in the full report (with the tables, the questions, the methodology, the definitions – you don’t need to be a statistician for this) – downloadable right here, right now: Household Transport in 2009 (473.04 kB)