High Level Summary of Statistics Trend Last update: Thursday, August 28, 2008
Road Network
There were 54,988 kilometres of public road in Scotland on 1 April 2007.
Scottish Ministers are responsible for the trunk road network, which comprises the motorways and some (but not all) of the main A roads. It accounted for 6% of the total length of the public road network, but carried over a third of all the traffic. Local authorities are responsible for the rest of the public road network.
The chart shows the lengths of road by class and speed limit. Roads with a speed limit of up to 40 mph are described as "built-up"; those with a higher speed limit are "non-built-up". Unclassified roads totalled 26,330 km - almost half the total length of the road network. There were 36,192 km of roads with a speed limit of over 40 mph - about two-thirds of the total network.
The length of motorway (excluding slip roads) has risen from 329 km in 1997 to 391 km in 2007. Between 1997 and 2007 the total length of the public road network increased by 1,839 km (3%), from 53,149 km in 1997 to 54,988 km in 2007, mainly due to a rise of 1,543 km in the total length of unclassified roads with a speed limit of up to 40 mph.
Source: Scottish Transport Statistics
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