High Level Summary of Statistics Trend Last update: Friday, September 23, 2011
Travel to Work
In 2010 sixty-seven per cent of people travelled to work by car (or van), 61 per cent as the driver and 6 per cent as a passenger, according to the Scottish Household Survey (SHS). Eleven per cent took a bus, 13 per cent walked, 4 per cent went by train and 2 per cent cycled. People who work at or from home are not inlcuded in these figures.
Men were more likely to travel by car (70 per cent against 64 per cent for women and women were more likely to walk (16 per cent against 11 per cent for men) or go by bus (13 per cent against 9 per cent for men).
The percentage travelling to work by car rose with the income of the household: from 35 per cent for commuters from low-income households (annual net household income of up to £10,000) to 78 per cent of those from high-income households (annual net household income over £40,000). The percentage walking ranges from 30 per cent in low-income households to 7 per cent in high-income households, and similarly the percentage using the bus ranges from 25 per cent to 5 per cent.
Over three quarters of commuters living in rural areas travelled by car, whereas 3-6 per cent went by bus. Large urban areas and remote small towns had the lowest percentages driving to work (57% and 63% respectively) and large urban areas had the highest percentage going by bus (17%).
Since the SHS started in 1999, the percentage driving to work has risen and the percentages who walk or are a passenger in a car has fallen.
Census results show that, between 1966 and 2001, there was a large rise in the percentage who commute by car (up from 21% to 68%), and large falls in the percentages who use the bus (down from 43% to 12%) and who walk to work (down from 24% to 12%). Over the same period, there was little change in the percentages travelling to work by train and by bicycle, which remained around 3-4 per cent and 1-2 per cent respectively.
View chart data
Source: Scottish Transport Statistics
Further Information