It is the city with the lowest level of car ownership in Scotland - but the country's most traffic offences.

Glasgow last year once again headed a national league table of bad driving, with 46,000 motorists found to flouting the rules of the road in 2014-15.

The figure was the highest in Scotland in both absolute and relative terms. But traffic insiders stress this reflected the city's location at the heart of Scotland's road network - with numerous out-of-towners on city streets - rather than the quality of local driving.

Glasgow had 718 road traffic offences for every 10,000 people last year, pipping Dumfries and Galloway, famous for its get-tough attitude to road offending, where the figure was 717, according to Police Scotland.

But this number means that, in relative terms, nine times more people are caught breaking rules of the road than in neighbouring and leafy East Renfrewshire. And Glasgow's figure was three and a half times bigger, per capita, than in Edinburgh.

Yet the Glasgow headline figure represents a whopping 38 per cent drop in a year as police sought to offer more warnings than tickets.

This decline came as road fatalities in Glasgow leapt to 18, the second highest figure in the country, in part due to the December 2014 George Square bin lorry tragedy. Fully a third of those who died did so in this single incident.

In relative terms, Glasgow fared better. Rural roads tend to suffer the worst accidents: Aberdeenshire topped the number of deaths on Scotland’s roads at 28 - a 33 per cent increase on the previous year.

Nationwide road deaths now account for nearly four times as many fatalities as homicides - although police are taking some comfort from a decline in collisions that result in serious injury.

But Glasgow statistics show there still real bad habits in the city.

Glasgow topped the list for drivers being recorded using their mobile phones while driving and for not wearing seatbelts in the last year.

In the financial year, police recorded 5,275 mobile phone related driving offences in the city – a rate of 88.6 offences per 10,000 head of population – making it the highest both in terms of numbers and proportionally.

The next highest area was West Dunbartonshire which had a rate of 54.7 per 10,000 of population - recording 2,492 mobile phone offences in total.

Drivers in Glasgow are also more likely to be recorded not wearing seatbelts than anywhere else.

Police recorded 4,292 offences involving drivers or their passengers not wearing seatbelts again giving it the highest rate in the country - 72.1 per every 10,000 head of population.

Orkney was second on the list with a rate of 41.8 offences recorded per 10,000.

Midlothian is ranked bottom in both categories.

Despite being the highest in the country the numbers of mobile phone and seatbelt related offences in Glasgow have in fact dropped dramatically in the last year – mobile phone offences fell by 49 per cent and seatbelt offences dropped by 57 per cent on the previous year.

Police sources said a crackdown in the first year of the national force may have had an impact on such offending.

Road safety remains the responsibility of the city council, along with police and other partners.

Councillor Alistair Watson, Executive Member for Sustainability and Transport, said: “We continually liaise with the police on road policing matters and work together to deliver awareness and enforcement campaigns aimed at all road users.

“ Go Safe Glasgow – the road safety partnership led by the council – runs various campaigns throughout the year including speeding, drink drive, driving at work, in-car safety, mobile phones, hazard perception and is due to start an amber gambler campaign in the near future. Improving road safety remains a top priority.”