Disability and Transport: Findings from the Scottish Household Survey

Disability and Transport front cover

A new report published by Transport Scotland outlines disabled people’s travel patterns based on the findings of the Scottish Household Survey. There are a number of key findings which highlight the differences in travel for disabled people compared with non-disabled people.

The report found that disabled people make fewer journeys (an average of 1.63 journeys per day vs 2.07) and travel shorter distances compared to non-disabled people (3.2km vs 4.5km).

Disabled adults are more likely to use the bus than non-disabled adults (11% of journeys vs 7%), less likely to drive (42% vs 54%), and more likely to be a car-passenger (18% vs 12%).

People who had recently used trains and buses were asked about different aspects of their experiences, including how safe they felt. The findings identified that 58% of disabled people agreed they felt safe and secure on the bus or train at night compared to 73% of non-disabled people.

At Disability Equality Scotland, we recently worked with Transport Scotland and partners to launch a national Hate Crime Charter. The purpose of the Charter is to encourage transport providers, members of the public and other services to support a zero-tolerance approach to hate crime on Scotland’s public transport network.

We want to encourage as many transport providers as possible to pledge their support to the Hate Crime Charter. More information can be found on the Hate Crime page of the Accessible Travel Hub: www.accessibletravel.scot/hate-crime

To read the ‘Disability and Transport’ survey results in full, visit the Transport Scotland website: bit.ly/3hMOUhb