Transport: key points

• Transport has both positive and negative effects on health and health inequalities through multiple pathways.
• Transport is needed to access other building blocks of health. Transport poverty is the lack of available, reliable, affordable, accessible and safe transport to meet people’s needs.
• Active and public transport has mainly positive impacts through access to services, physical activity and social connections.
• Car dominated transport causes adverse effects including injuries, air and noise pollutions, greenhouse gas emissions, physical inactivity and social isolation caused by the barrier effect of heavy traffic.
• The National Transport Strategy supports the Sustainable Travel Hierarchy which prioritises, in order: walking, cycling, public transport, then shared car use, with single occupancy private car travel given lowest priority.
• 63% of all journeys are made by car or van (as driver or passenger), 25% walking, 7% bus, with rail, bicycle, taxi and others each 2% or less of total journeys. The proportion of journeys made by car is lower in young people, low income people, disabled people and people in urban areas.
• 74% of households has access to at least one car or van. This is higher in rural areas and less deprived areas.
• 34% of households has at least one bicycle for private use.
• 70% of people found it very easy or fairly easy to afford transport costs. This is lower among disabled people, low income people and in remote rural areas.
• As at 1 January 2025, the number of National Entitlement Cardholders who can access free bus travel was over 2.3 million.
• 64% of adults express satisfaction with public transport.
• An estimated 47.4 billion vehicle kilometres were driven in Scotland in 2022. Traffic volumes fell during the Covid-19 pandemic but are now rising again.
• 155 people were killed, 1,944 were seriously injured and 3,730 slightly injured in road collisions in Scotland in 2023.