How well are national policies addressing transport poverty in Scotland?

Abstract

Transport poverty can be caused by a lack of transport options that are available, reliable, affordable, accessible or safe. This study aimed to assess whether selected national transport policies were likely to achieve a population level impact on transport poverty in Scotland. We identified a long list of relevant policies from sources including the national transport strategy annual delivery plan. Transport Scotland officials prioritised 12 of these policies for review. Eight policies addressed affordability, three safety, and two accessibility, one of which addressed both accessibility and safety. We used available evidence, mainly from policy documentation and evaluations, to score whether these were: systematically applied; scaled up appropriately; resourced in the long term; and evidence based, to generate an overall assessment of likely population level impact. We scored eight policies as high population level impact, three medium and one low. The policies were all legislative or universally available for defined populations, with few barriers to uptake. We identified bus concessionary schemes as particularly important to improve affordability, but some low-income populations who could most benefit are not eligible. We assessed three legislative policies as likely to have a population impact on accessibility and/or safety. We conclude that addressing each dimension in isolation is not sufficient to reduce transport poverty. A broad transport poverty strategy addressing all dimensions of transport poverty should be developed to ensure everyone can access transport options to meet their needs