3 Personal Travel

This section contains analysis and headline findings from the Scottish Household Survey questions relating to personal travel (including the Travel Diary part of the survey).

3.1 Who travels?

Three quarters (76%) of survey respondents travelled the previous day. [Table TD1]
The number of people travelling the previous day has increased from 73 per cent of respondents in 2012 to 76 per cent in 2013. [Table TD1]
Men are more likely to have travelled than women, 77 per cent of men had travelled the previous day compared to 74% of women. [Table TD1]
Older people are less likely to have travelled the previous day. Only 47 per cent of those aged 80 and over had travelled the previous day and 64% of those aged 70 to 80. [Table TD1]

3.2 What is the purpose of travel?

Most journeys are for the purpose of commuting (22%) or shopping (22%). [Table TD3]
There has been little change in journey purpose since 2012. [Table TD3]

3.2.1 Travel to Work

How do people travel?

Two thirds of journeys to work are by car / van, either as a driver (61%) or passenger (6%). [Table SUM1]
Thirty one per cent of journeys to work are by Public or Active travel. This provides an update to the Travel to Work National Indicator, number 48, which will show performance maintaining. [Table SUM1]
Thirteen per cent of journeys to work are on foot. [Table SUM1]
Eleven per cent of journeys to work are by bus and four per cent of journeys to work are by rail. [Table SUM1]
2.5 per cent of journeys to work were by bicycle in 2013, the highest proportion recorded in the survey, but not a statistically significant increase on 2012. [Table SUM1]

Who travels by which mode?

Men are more likely to drive to work than women. Women are more likely than men to walk or catch the bus to work. Men are also more likely to cycle to work. [Table 7]
Walking and bus travel to work reduce as household income increases. [Table 7]
Younger people (aged 16 to 20) are least likely to drive to work. [Table 7]

Reasons for transport choice?

Of those who drive to work, 45% say they could use public transport. The main reasons for not using Public Transport are that it takes too long (49%) and no direct route (32%).[Table 13 and Table 14]
15 per cent of people car share. Of these, the majority (90%) arrange it between themselves, with only 9% organising it through their employer. [Table 11]
The main reasons given for not car sharing are that nobody in my work lives near me (57%) and don't work regular hours (26%). [Table 11]
Relatively few people have changed the mode of transport they use to get to work compared to last year. Of those who drove to work a year ago, 97 per cent still drive to work. For other modes, the biggest shift is to driving, for example 6 per cent of those who walked a year ago now drive. [Table 10]
The main reasons given for changing mode of travel to work are changing job (33%) and moving house (23%). [Table 10a]
Of those who don't currently cycle to work, the main reason given for not doing so is 'it's too far' (37% in 2013), followed by 'the weather' (20% in 2013). 'Not having a bike' and 'Too many cars on the road' account for 14 per cent each. [Table 26]

3.2.2 Travel to School

How do children travel?

Around half of children (52%) walk to school. [Table SUM1]
Twenty per cent travel by bus. [Table SUM1]
Around a quarter (24%) travel by car. [Table SUM1]
There is variation in mode of travel by age with 58 per cent of those aged 4 to 11 walking to school compared to 44 per cent of those aged 12 to 18. Older children are more likely to catch a bus than younger children, 34 per cent compared to 9 per cent. [Table 15]
These figures are similar to those reported in the Sustrans Hands Up Scotland publication: http://www.sustrans.org.uk/scotland/what-we-do/schools-and-universities/hands-scotland

Why do parents choose these modes?

85 per cent walk because the school is close. [Table 16]
48 per cent who travel by car do so because it's the most convenient mode. Half of those who use a school bus and 43 per cent of those who use a service bus do so for the same reason. [Table 16]
The second most popular reason for those who travel by car or bus is that it is too far to walk. [Table 16]
The most popular reason for primary children not using public transport is that they are too young (56%). For Secondary aged children the main reasons are inconvenient (36%) and prefer to use car (32%). [Table 17]

3.3 When are people travelling?

As would be expected, more journeys are reported on weekdays (14-15% of journeys on each day) than at weekends, with least travel reported on Sundays (12% of journeys). [Table TD8]
Peak travel on a weekday is between 7 am and 9:30 am (19% of weekday journeys start between these times). The afternoon peak is more spread out with 17 per cent of journeys starting between 2 pm and 4:30 pm and another 17 per cent starting between 4:30 pm and 6:30 pm. [Table TD7]
A quarter (25%) of weekend journeys start between 12 noon and 2 pm, with over 27 per cent of weekend journeys starting before noon and 49% of journeys staring after 2pm. [Table TD7]
There has been little change in these travel patterns reported in the survey over recent years. [Table TD7 and Table TD8]

3.3.1 Perceptions of Congestion

9.7 per cent of driver journeys are delayed due to congestion, a similar proportion to 2012 (9.9%) but the lowest figure recorded in the survey and three percentage points below the 2006 figure. This provides an update to National Indicator 4, which will show performance maintaining. [Table SUM1 and Table TD10]
The main reason for delay is volume of traffic (80%) up from 73 per cent in 2012. Delays as a result of road maintenance have fallen from 26 per cent to 18 per cent. [Table TD10a]
Ten per cent of bus journeys are delayed due to congestion, a similar figure to previous years. [Table TD11]
Half (50%) of journeys to work are never affected by congestion but the proportions are lower for car and bus journeys (39% of car driver journeys and 35% of bus journeys). [Table 8]
Thirty seven per cent of people who drive to work experience congestion at least once a week. The proportion is 43 per cent for buses. [Table 8]
Over a quarter (28%) of drivers allow no extra time for congestion on their journey to work and a third (34%) allow ten minutes or less. The proportions are similar for bus passengers with 32 per cent allowing no extra time and 28 per cent allowing ten minutes or less. [Table 8]
Eighteen per cent of driver commuting journeys and 16 per cent of driver business journeys were delayed by congestion. The percentages for all other purposes were less than ten per cent. [Table TD12]
As would be expected, the morning and evening peak periods on weekdays saw the highest proportion of driver journeys delayed by congestion, around 20 per cent. [Table TD12]

3.3.2 Duration

Most journeys are short. Seventy per cent of journeys last less than 20 minutes. Forty two per cent last less than ten minutes. Only 15 per cent of journeys last more than half an hour with less than 5 per cent lasting more than an hour. [Table TD6]

3.4 How are people travelling?

The car remains the most popular mode of transport. Half of journeys are made as a car driver, an increase from 48 per cent in 2012. A further 14 per cent are made as a passenger an increase from 13 per cent in 2012. [Table TD2 and Table SUM1]
The second most used mode of transport is walking 23 per cent, a reduction from 26 per cent in 2012. [Table TD2 and Table SUM1]
There has been little change in share for other modes of transport with 8.5 per cent of journeys by bus, 1.7 per cent by rail and 1 per cent by bicycle. [Table TD2]
Analysis of modal share by stage instead of journey does not alter these findings. [Table TD2b]

3.4.1 Use of multiple modes / Park and Ride

Four per cent of journeys reported in the Travel Diary are multi-stage. Note that prior to the changes in the structure of the travel diary to improve the quality of the data (See appendix A), the survey was reporting one per cent. [Table TD2c]
Three quarters of multi-stage journeys reported consist of two stages. [Table TD2c]
Multi-stage journeys are highest for ferry and air travel with an average of over 2 stages per journey. For rail the average is 1.4 and for all other modes the average number of stages per journey is just over one. [Table TD2c]
The proportion of people reporting having made park and ride journeys in the last month fell between 2012 and 2013 from 19 per cent to 16 per cent of respondents. [Table 21]
The most popular locations used were park and ride facility (29%) and car park at bus / train station or airport (31%). [Table 21]
Those that did not use a dedicated park and ride facility cited 'no facility available' (73%) and 'journey would take longer' (10%). [Table 21]
Almost half (49%) used a train for their onward journey, 29 per cent used a bus and 17 per cent walked. [Table 22]

3.5 Where are people travelling?

Twenty two per cent of all journeys in Scotland either start or end in Edinburgh or Glasgow. [Table TD13 and Table TD14]
Most journeys start and finish in the same area. This proportion is highest in Highlands / islands / Grampian where 95% of journeys start and finish in the same area and lowest in Glasgow (70%). [SHSTD Table 13 and Table 14]

3.6 How far are people travelling?

A quarter of journeys are under 1 km and half are under 3 km. [Table TD4]
People reported fewer very short journeys in 2013 (24.6% under 1 km) compared to 2012 (25.9% under 1 km) which will be a result of the reduction in walking journeys reported in the survey. [Table TD4]
Half of all journey lengths reported were 3 km or less and the mean journey length is 8.5 km. [Table TD5]
Walking journeys have the shortest average length (1 km) then bicycle (4.4 km) and bus (7.7 km). The average car journey is 10.8 km and rail journeys have the longest average length at 33 km. [Table TD5a]
Almost two thirds (64%) of journeys under 1 km are made on foot, however car journeys account for most of the remainder (32%). [Table TD2a]