2 Background

2.1 This bulletin provides some of the main transport trends in Scotland from a range of administrative and survey data sources. It provides analysis of the Transport related questions asked in the Scottish Household Survey and uses some of the main transport trends in Scotland from a range of data sources and included some comparisons with Great Britain as context. This publication replaced two publications, Main Transport Trends and Household Transport, in 2011.

2.2 This publication is split into 6 broad themes:

Motor vehicles, traffic and driving
Public transport, ferries and aviation
Walking and cycling
Travel to work and school
Access to services
Freight

2.3 The tables are split as follows:

modal trends in Scotland over the past ten years - Tables S1 and S2

Scottish Household Survey trends over the past ten years - Table S3

cross-border transport trends over the past ten years - Table S4

Scotland and GB (or the UK) comparisons - Tables SGB1 to SGB3

longer-term trends in some statistics, for Scotland - Tables H1 to H4

Scottish Household Survey tables - Tables 1 to 37 (note that not all tables are updated and included in this publication due to changes to the SHS, see para 2.12)

2.4 Table S3 contains statistics which underpin Scotland's National Indicator on travel to work. More information on National Indicators can be found on the Scotland Performs website.www.scotland.gov.uk/About/scotPerforms/indicators/publicTransport

2.5 This bulletin's purpose is to highlight the main trends in transport and travel in Scotland and present the results of the 2012 Scottish Household Survey transport questions in context. For a full list of Transport statistics publications see: http://www.transportscotland.gov.uk/analysis/statistics/publications.

2.6 Data sources are listed in Section 9 of this publication. Further explanation of definitions can be found in the relevant topic chapters of Scottish Transport Statistics http://www.transportscotland.gov.uk/analysis/statistics/publications/scottish-transport-statistics-previous-editions

2.7 Scottish Transport Statistics will be published in February 2014 and will contain a comprehensive statistical picture of transport statistics in Scotland. Analysis of the Scottish Household Survey Travel Diary will be published in November 2013.

Scottish Household Survey

2.8 A number of tables in this bulletin provide analyses of transport related questions, asked by the Scottish Household Survey (SHS) from 1999 to 2012.

2.9 The SHS is a survey of private households and does not cover some sections of the population - e.g. those living on military bases and most students living in halls of residence will not be included.

2.10 The SHS collects a wide range of information with questions asked of either:

the household as a whole
one randomly-chosen adult (aged 16 or over) member of the household
one schoolchild (if there is one in the household)
Highest Income Householder

2.11 To produce representative results, data are weighted to take account of differences in selection probabilities and non-response.

2.12 There were changes to the SHS survey methodology for the 2012 survey. This needs to be considered when analysing the survey results. The main changes affecting this publication are a reduction in the sample size for some questions, and a change in the survey structure meaning some questions now only provide data biennially. Additionally, a number of questions (including some which previously provided data for this publication) have been removed from the survey.

2.13 Where no new data is available, a table has not been included in this publication. The most recent data for these tables can be found in Transport and Travel in Scotland 2011. Table numbers have not been changed as updated versions of these tables are likely to be included in Transport and Travel in Scotland 2013. More detail about the changes can be found in the 2012 Scottish Household Survey Annual Report and on the Transport Scotland statistics pages.

Sample size and variability

2.14 Results are subject to sampling variability and care should be taken when interpreting year-on-year changes. Table 37 shows the confidence limits for the results (Appendix A describes how these should be used).

2.15 Where questions were asked of small numbers of individuals (due to sub sampling or the particular relevance of a question) results are produced by combining years to increase the sample size and therefore the reliability.

The data was extracted from the SHS database in summer 2013 and does not take into account any subsequent revisions to the data.

Prepared for publication by: Matt Perkins, Andrew Knight, Andrew Paterson, Charlie Lewis

Transport Analytical Services

Transport Scotland
Victoria Quay
Edinburgh EH6 6QQ
Telephone: 0131 244 7256 or 0131 244 1457
transtat@transportscotland.gsi.gov.uk