Statistical Bulletin Transport Series Scottish Household Survey: Travel Diary 2009/2010
6. When are people travelling?
- The percentage of journeys during the week peaked during the morning and evening rush hours. However, journeys at the weekend demonstrated a peak around midday to 1pm.
Figure 12: Start time of journey by weekday/weekend, 2009/2010
Day of Travel
6.1 Day of the week analysis must be taken with caution since interviewing patterns and journeys made may vary by area. A reweighting process produces an even spread of interviews for Scotland as a whole (further details in the Appendix).
6.2 Sunday accounted for the lowest proportion of all journeys made, although was the most popular day to undertake journeys for day trips, to go home or for a walk, other personal business and visiting friends/relatives. Saturday was the most popular for shopping, sport/entertainment and eating/drinking trips. [Table 18]
6.3 Weekday travel was unsurprisingly more popular for the purposes of commuting, business and education journeys as well as escort journeys and those to visit hospital/health facilities. [Table 18]
6.4 Around a fifth of all bicycle journeys were recorded on a Sunday, compared to half as many on a Saturday; the opposite was true of journeys undertaken by taxi. Car passenger journeys were more likely at the weekend and rail and bus journeys more common during the week. [Table 18]
6.5 Of course, it will be expected that day of travel, mode and purpose will all be connected. For example, public transport journeys being more common during the week will be due to the fact that such modes are more likely to be used for travel that occurs more regularly during the week such as commuting, education, visiting hospital.
6.6 Younger (16-19 year olds) and older (80 years and over) respondents were the least likely to travel on a Saturday. [Table 18]
Time of Travel
6.7 The older the respondent, the less likely they were to travel after 6.30pm - 8 per cent of those aged 80 and over compared to 22 per cent of 16-19 year olds. However, the likelihood of travel between 9.30am and 2pm increased with age. [Table 17], [Figure 13]
Figure 13: start time of journey by age, 2009/2010
6.8 The majority of journeys starting between 7am and 9.30 am were for work, education and escort purposes, the latter likely to be parents taking children to school. Journeys for shopping, walking and visiting hospital were more likely to take place during the day (out with peak periods) and visiting friends/relatives, eating/drinking and sport/entertainment being the most popular purposes for journeys starting after 6.30pm. [Table 17]
6.9 The higher the household income, the more likely to start a journey between 7am-9.30am and 4.30pm onwards. This ties in with those in higher income households being more likely to be employed and those in employment being most likely to travel during peak times (for commuting purposes). [Table 17]
6.10 There was very little variation over the week in the level of journeys at all times. There were some differences in the start times between weekday and weekend journeys, particularly between 7am and 2pm. The most apparent was for those beginning between 7 and 9:30am, where a fifth of all journeys were reported Monday-Friday compared to less than a tenth at the weekend. [Table 17]