Walking, Cycling and Wheeling is Safer for Everyone

This outcome is looking at two indicators: (8) Casualties by mode of transport and distance travelled and (9) Perceptions of safety of walking, wheeling, and cycling.

8. Casualties by Mode of Transport and Distance Travelled

Figure 33 indicates a downward trend regarding the rate of casualties per million vehicle kilometres travelled by mode of transport for cyclists. This number is somewhat lower for 2020, which was to be expected given the impact of the pandemic. For cars, the rate of casualties per million vehicle kilometres travelled has been fairly consistent since 2014 and much lower than for cyclists. The data for 2021 will be published in October 2022.

As described in text.
Figure 33. Rate of casualties per million vehicle km by mode of transport (2014-2020)

Provisional data for 2021 on the number of reported casualties by mode of transport suggests a continuous downward trend in the number of casualties since 2016, regardless of the mode of transport. However, this has been the most prominent for car casualties, as indicated in Figure 34.

As described in text.
Figure 34. Reported casualties by mode of transport (2014-2021)

9. Perceptions of Safety of Walking, Wheeling, and Cycling

The data on the perceptions of safety when walking, wheeling, and cycling comes from multiple sources. The Scottish Crime and Justice Survey inquires about  feelings of safety when walking alone in one’s local area after dark and the latest findings available are for 2019/2020. Figure 35 indicates that the large majority of respondents felt very or fairly safe walking alone after dark, roughly 77%. This remained consistent across all data points (from 2016/2017 until 2019/2020).

As described in text.
Figure 35. Perception of safety walking alone in local area after dark (2016-2019)

When looking at this indicator by gender, women tend to feel a bit or fairly unsafe when walking alone in the dark more often than men. Regardless, women’s perception of being safe when walking alone in their local area after dark has remained around 66% across the same timeframe (see Figure 36).

As described in text.
Figure 36. Perception of safety walking alone in local area after dark by gender (2016-2019)

Likewise, looking at the data from Transport and Travel in Scotland publication, only 1% of respondents listed safety as one of the reasons that discourage them from walking more often than they do. This remained at 1% for five data points (2012-2014, 2016, 2019). The more prominent barriers for walking than feeling unsafe are discussed at indicator 15 in this report.

Finally, the Scottish Household Survey provides data on travelling to work. Figure 37 shows that the majority of respondents drove to work (~66%), 10% or so took a bus, and 4% commuted by rail or underground. Of the remaining fifth, roughly 12% of participants walked to work and only 3% cycled. These proportions remained similar during 2020 too, although the data for this year cannot be used to examine trends.

As described in text.
Figure 37. Modes of transport used to travel to work (2012-2020)

When asked about the reasons why individuals did not cycle to work more, 40% stated that their work was too far to cycle. However, 12% raised concerns for personal safety when cycling on dark and/or lonely roads (see Figure 38). This question changed its format in 2019 and will be asked in alternate (odd) years. Thus, only the results for 2019 are demonstrated.

As described in text.
Figure 38. Reasons for not cycling to work (2019)

As shown in Figure 39, this was higher for women, whereby the percentage of women raising concerns about personal safety was roughly double that of men.

As described in text.
Figure 39. Reasons for not cycling to work by gender (2019)