Transport and Travel in Scotland 2014

5. 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 other sources.

Driving Licences

Sixty eight per cent of the population (17+) had a driving licence in 2014, the same proportion as in 2013. [Table SUM1 and Table 1]

Three quarters (76%) of men aged 17+ had a driving licence, compared to 62 per cent of women. There has been a narrowing of this gap over the years of the survey. [Table 1 and Figure 2]

Figure 2 - Driving licence possession by gender

Driving licence possession was lowest amongst younger and older people (17-19: 29% and 80+: 40%) and highest amongst those aged 40-49 (82%). [Table 1]

Driving licence possession increased 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 (60% of adults in large urban areas have a driving licence, compared to 84% of those in remote rural areas). [Table 19]

Car And Van Access

Sixty nine per cent of households had access to one or more cars or vans for private use in 2014. Around a quarter (26%) of households had access to two or more cars (or vans). These proportions are similar to 2013. [Tables 18 & SUM1]

The proportion of households with access to a car was higher in households with a higher net annual income; the number of cars the household had access to was also higher in higher income households; 66% of households with an annual income of more than £40,000 had access to two or more cars, compared to 6 per cent of households with an annual income of less than £10,000. [Table 18]

Households in rural areas were more likely to have access to a car than those in urban areas, and households in rural areas were also more likely to have access to more than one car than households in urban areas. [Table 18]

Frequency Of Driving

Sixty one per cent of those aged 17+ drove at least once a week in 2014, with 41 per cent driving every day. [Tables 3a & SUM1]

Frequency of driving increased with income and with rurality. Thirty one per cent of adults in large urban areas drove every day compared to fifty one per cent of adults in remote rural areas. Seventeen per cent of adults living in households with a total annual income of under £10,000 drove every day, compared to sixty five per cent of those who lived in households with a total annual income of over £40,000. [Table 20]

Car Occupancy

The average car occupancy was 1.5 people in 2014; the rate has remained similar in recent years. The proportion of single occupancy journeys has seen increases in recent years and accounted for around two thirds (65%) of car journeys in 2014, an increase from 60% in 2004. [Table TD9]

Fuel Spend

The average amount which households spent on fuel in the last month fell slightly between 2013 and 2014, from £128.90 to £123.70, however the median figure remains at £100. [Table 2]

Licensed Vehicles

There were 262,200 new vehicles registered in Scotland in 2014, the highest number of new registrations since 2004. [Table SUM2]

The number of vehicles licensed for use on the roads increased by 2 per cent from 2.76 million to 2.82 million between 2013 and 2014. [Table SUM2]

More detailed statistics on vehicles licensed in Scotland can be found in the Road Transport Vehicles Chapter of Scottish Transport Statistics.

Road Network

There are 55,990 km of road in Scotland. Of this, 6.4 per cent (3,570 km) is Trunk road, the remaining 52,420 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.

Road Traffic

The estimated volume of traffic on Scotland's roads was at its highest ever - 44.8 billion vehicle kilometres in 2014, an increase of 2 per cent on 2013 and slightly above the previous recent peak in 2007 of 44.7 billion. [Table SUM2] More detailed statistics on road traffic in Scotland can be found in the Road Traffic chapter of Scottish Transport Statistics.

Reported Road Casualties

Provisional figures show a total of 11,240 road casualties reported to the police in 2014 (264, or 2%, fewer than in 2013), the lowest figure since records began in 1950. Of these, there were 200 fatalities; 28 (16%) more than in 2013. There were 1,694 serious injuries; 22 (or 1%) more than in 2013 and 9,346 slightly injured: 314 (or 3%) fewer than in 2013. More detailed statistics can be found in Key Reported Road Casualties.