4. Motor vehicles, traffic and driving

This section contains analysis and headline findings from the Scottish Household Survey questions on driving and car access (including the Travel Diary part of the survey), as well as comparisons with data from a range of administrative data sources.

4.1 Possession of driving licenses

Sixty eight per cent of the population (17+) have a driving licence, a proportion unchanged in recent years. [Table SUM1 and Table 1]
Three quarters of men aged 17+ have a driving licence, compared to 61 per cent of women. There has been a narrowing of this gap over the years of the survey. [Table 1]
Driving licence possession is lowest amongst younger and older people (17-19: 26% and 80+: 41%) and highest amongst those aged 40-59 (80%). [Table 1]
Driving licence possession increases with net annual household income (47% for adults in households with less than £10,000 of income compared to 90% in households with an income over £40,000). [Table 19]
Driving licence possession increases with rurality (61% of adults in large urban areas have a driving licence, compared to 87% of those in remote rural areas). [Table 19]

4.2 Access to cars / vans

Seventy per cent of households have access to one or more cars / vans for private use. Around a quarter (26%) of households have access to two or more cars. These proportions are similar to 2012. [Table SUM1]
As income increases, the proportion of households with access to a car increases, as does the number of cars the household has access to. [Table 18]
Households in rural areas are more likely to have access to a car than those in urban areas, and households in rural areas are also more likely to have access to more than one car. [Table 18]

4.3 Frequency of driving

Sixty per cent of those aged 17+ drive at least once a week with 42 per cent driving every day. [Table SUM1]
Frequency of driving increases with income and with rurality (34% of those in large urban areas drive every day compared to 58% of those in remote rural areas). [Table 20]

4.4 Car occupancy

The average car occupancy is 1.5 people but the proportion of single occupancy journeys has been increasing and now accounts for around two thirds (65%) of car journeys, an increase from 60% in 2008 / 2009. [Table TD9]

4.5 Fuel spend

The average amount households spent on fuel in the last month fell slightly between 2012 and 2013, from £134.50 to £129, however the median figure remains at £100. [Table 2]

4.6 Licensed vehicles

There were 241,000 new vehicles registered in Scotland in 2013, the highest number of new registrations since 2008. [Table SUM2]
The number of vehicles licensed for use on the roads increased by 2 per cent from 2.72 million to 2.76 million. [Table SUM2]
More detailed statistics on vehicles licensed in Scotland can be found in the Road Transport Vehicles Chapter of Scottish Transport Statistics.

4.7 The road network

There are 55,961 km of road in Scotland. Of this, 6.3 per cent (3,550 km) is Trunk road, the remaining 52,411 km are managed by Local Authorities. There has been an increase in road length of one per cent over the last five years. [Table SUM2]
More detailed statistics on the road network in Scotland can be found in the Road Network chapter of Scottish Transport Statistics.

4.8 Road traffic

The estimated volume of traffic on Scotland's roads was 43.8 billion vehicle kilometres in 2013, an increase of 1 per cent on 2012 but still 2 per cent below the 2007 peak of 44.6 billion. [Table SUM2]
More detailed statistics on road traffic in Scotland can be found in the Road Traffic chapter of Scottish Transport Statistics.

4.9 Reported road casualties

Provisional figures show there were a total of 11,493 road casualties reported to the police in 2013 (1,229 or 10% fewer than in 2012), the lowest figure recorded. Of which there were:
172 fatalities: 6 (or 3%) fewer than in 2012
1,667 serious injuries: 315 (or 16%) fewer than in 2012
9,654 slightly injured: 908 (or 9%) fewer than in 2012.
More details can be found in 'Key Reported Road Casualties Scotland 2013' on the Transport Scotland website. Detailed road casualty statistics for 2013 will be published in 'Reported Road Casualties Scotland 2013' in October 2014.