Key findings
Key findings
Over the period that telephone surveys were being conducted (April 2021 to March 2022) people in Scotland were subject to some restrictions on travel and daily activity due to coronavirus measures.
- 69% of adults travelled the day before their survey interview. [Table TD1]
Fewer people travelled in the oldest age groups, with 63% of those over 70 and 49% of the over 80s travelling the previous day. Disabled people were less likely to have travelled than those who were not disabled (58% compared to 73%). [Table TD1 and Figure 1]
- Half of all journeys (50%) were made by driving a car or van. Walking was the next most popular mode of transport (30% of journeys), followed by 11% as car passenger, 4% by bus, 2% by cycling, and 1.5% by rail. [Table TD2, Table SUM1, and Figure 2]
- Shopping was the most common reason for travel (24% of journeys), followed by commuting (16%) and going for a walk (13%). [Table TD3 and Figure 3]
- 40% of employed people reported that they currently worked from home. [Table 7a and Figure 4]. Working from home was more common for higher earners. 46% of those earning over £50,000 a year worked from home, compared to 30% of those earning up to £20,000. [Table 7a]
- Amongst those that travelled to work, 71% per cent of people usually went by car or van, either as a driver (68%) or passenger (3%). [Table 7]
- Scotland's National Performance Framework includes a 'Journeys by Active Travel' National Indicator, which monitors the proportion of short journeys that are made by the two main active travel modes: walking and cycling.
This found that 56.2% of journeys under two miles were on foot. [Table 4c and Figure 20] and 2.8% of journeys under five miles were by bicycle. [Table 4d and Figure 21]
- Over half of children (54%) walked to school, while 22% travelled by car and 19% travelled by bus. [Table SUM1, Table 15 and Figure 8]
- Car access increased with household income, as did the number of cars available per household. Fifty per cent of households with an annual income up to £10,000 had access to one or more cars, compared to 97% of households with an annual income of more than £50,000. [Table 18b and Figure 14]
- 3% of adults owned an electric vehicle.