Woopah oh yeah yeah!

23 August 2010

stagecoachbus Should we be transported by delight at the latest travel statistics, be driven to despair, fly into a rage? Are we walking back to happiness (woopah oh yeah yeah)? Not to mention Yay, yay, yay, yay ba dum be do? Our use of transport – how much and what kind – is vital to sustainable development and climate change policy. The Scottish Government has kindly provided answers to the above questions in Main Transport Trends 2010.

Main Points

67% of commuters travelled to work by car/van in 2009, 12% walked, 12% bussed, 4% travelled by iron horse (aka train).
50% of pupils walked to school, 24% were chauffeured by parents, 22% bussed, 1% cycled.
Passenger journeys on ScotRail increased to 76.9 million in 2009/10, an increase of 20% since 2004/05.
Bus journeys fell slightly to £493 million in 2008/09 but still up by 6.9% since 2004/05.
Total number of vehicles on the road increased to 2.71 million in 2009, the highest ever figure.
The volume of traffic on Scotland’s roads fell slightly in 2009 but is 11% up on 1999.
68% of people between aged 17 or more had a full driving licence, 76% of men compared to 61% of women.
216 people were killed on Scotland’s roads in 2009, 54 fewer than 2008.
There were 22.5 million air terminal passengers in 2009, 8% less than previous year, and the sixth highest recorded.
Ferry passengers increased by 4% in 2009 to 5.9 million.

Brief comments. Great that half of school pupils walk to school. Should we be bothering much about promoting cycling to school since it is such an insignificant choice? Why do bus passenger numbers not show more effect of the Scotland-wide free travel scheme? I find it rather odd. It’s no cause for celebration that the traffic volume on our roads fell slightly – it’s almost certainly a result of the recession and not modal shift (do excuse this, I try to keep these pieces largely jargon free but from time to time I do feel a desperate need to introduce such stuff – this fix should keep me going for a while). Splendid news that road deaths fell so much – let’s hope that the Scottish Government doesn’t follow the lead of Citizen’s Dave C’s southron Government and reduce the use of speed cameras, a policy which will almost certainly lead to more road accidents and casualties. Finally I’m not at all surprised that more people are away with the ferries. It’s something I can confirm from personal observation. And I believe more people are using passenger boat services as well.

The Scottish Government report has figures on (eg) road vehicles, traffic, accidents, bus and rail passengers, road and rail freight, air and water transport, personal travel, trends in the foregoing and comparisons with GB. For the full report, with all the charts, stats and methodology: Main Transport Trends 2010 (234.38 kB)

The song quoted from is Walking Back to Happiness, 1961 by Helen Shapiro.