44.8bn kilometres were travelled on Scotland’s roads in 2014, a year-on-year increase of almost one billion kilometres.
The figures, released today (29 February) by Transport Scotland, show that car traffic rose to 34.4bn vehicle kilometres, up 600m from 33.8bn the previous year.
The stats also show that pedal cycle traffic saw a year-on-year rise of 3% to 339m kilometres in 2014.
In terms of longer trends, over the past five years air and rail passengers, and car and cycle traffic levels have all increased, while bus and ferry passenger numbers have decreased.
The figures come against a rise in fatal and serious road accidents, from 1,589 in 2013 to 1,664 in 2014. However, this number is significantly lower than five years ago (2009) when there were 2,194 fatal and serious road accidents.
The number of casualties of all severities dropped to 8,808 in 2014, down from 8,990 in the previous year.
The publication, Scottish Transport Statistics, shows that there were 2.8m motor vehicles licensed in Scotland at the end of 2014, with 262,000 new vehicle registrations made in 2014. 84% of all vehicles licensed were cars.
540m public transport journeys were made in 2014/15. 77% of those were made by bus, 17% by rail, 4% air and 2% by ferry.
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