Travel to school

Mode of travel to school in Scottish cities

Among Scotland's largest four cities, levels of active travel to school — defined here as walking, cycling or scootering/skating — are highest in Edinburgh, where 64% of children used an active mode of travel to school in 2022. Dundee had the highest level of children being driven to school of the four cities (29%).

In Glasgow, 48% of pupils travelled to school actively, while 26% were driven to school.

Note

Active travel as defined here is any kind of travel to school involving significant physical activity and includes walking, cycling and scootering/skateboarding.

The Sustrans Hands Up survey has been carried out in most councils in Scotland since 2008. However not all schools in a local authority participate, and not all pupils in every school surveyed take part. This may bring unforeseen biases into the results and may compromise some of the comparisons.

For more information go to the Sustrans website.