Transport and Travel in Scotland 2010

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 replaces two statistical bulletins:

• Main Transport Trends which described some main transport trends in Scotland using a range of data sources and included some comparisons with Great Britain; and
• Household Transport which provided analysis of the Transport related questions asked in the Scottish Household Survey.

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 36

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 2010 Scottish Household Survey transport questions in context. For a full list of Transport statistics publications see: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Transport-Travel/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 www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2007/12/14120610/0.

2.7 Scottish Transport Statistics will be published in December 2011 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 2011.

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 2010.

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.

Sample size and variability

2.12 Results are subject to sampling variability and care should be taken when interpreting year-on-year changes. Table 36 shows the confidence limits for the results ( Appendix A describes how these should be used).

2.13 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.

2.14 The data was extracted from the SHS database in summer 2011 and does not take into account any subsequent revisions to the data.

Prepared for publication by:

Matt Perkins
Andrew Knight
Sara Conroy
Charlie Lewis

Transport statistics

Transport Scotland

Victoria Quay

Edinburgh EH6 6 QQ

Telephone: 0131 244 7256 or 0131 244 1457

transtat@transportscotland.gsi.gov.uk