Some Current Trends and Impacts of Travel

The evidence base that supports efforts to change our travel behaviour is considerable.

Travel to Work (1)

69% by car or van
12% walked
16% bus or train
2% cycle

Climate Change & Air Quality

Road transport contributed around 17% of Scotland's carbon dioxide emissions in 2006 - the largest contributor after power generation (2)
Carbon dioxide emissions from Scottish road transport have grown 11.4% since 1990 (2)
Road transport accounted for approximately 82% of all transport emissions in 2006, with over half of that total coming from passenger cars

A number of local authorities in Scotland have declared Air Quality Management Areas, which means that National Air Quality objectives are not being met. Road transport is a direct contributor to air quality problems.

Evidence also shows that congestion is worsening on the trunk road network and local authorities are reporting similar problems on the local road network.

Growth in traffic and car ownership

In 2007, 34,545 million km were driven by cars on Scotland's roads, an increase of 12% since 1997 (3)
Number of cars licensed in Scotland at 31 December 2007: 2,216,000 - a growth of around 28% since 1997 (3)
30.4% of Scottish Households don't have access to a car, whilst 44.6% of households have access to 1 car in 2007 (3)

Commuting & Congestion (4)

The Scottish Household Survey Travel Diary for 2005 - 2006 revealed that:

Around 72% of all commuting journeys were by car, 85% of which were driver only
22.8% of journeys between 8am and 9am and 27.3% of journeys between 5pm and 6pm were delayed by congestion

Health and Active Travel (5)

The proportions of men and women aged 16-74 meeting the physical activity recommendations (30 minutes of at moderate exercise on most days of the week) increased significantly from 41% in 1998 to 44% in 2003 in men, and from 30% in 1998 to 33% in 2003 in women.

Although the proportions of adults meeting the recommendations has increased in recent years - still less than half of men and only a third of women are meeting the recommendations.

The 2003 Scottish Health Survey estimated that in Scotland 24% of men and 26% of women are obese - an increase from 16% of men and 17% of women in 1995.

References:

↑ back to top