Getting There Better

11 July 2010

Getting There is a report by the Sustainable Development Commission Scotland into future transport policy and how we should respond to the dramatic increase in road traffic and the need to reduce carbon emissions.

The report’s starting position is that the growth in road traffic, and no-growth in “active travel”, ie walking and cycling, means that the Government is failing its own policy targets. Research commissioned by the Scottish Government has shown that current transport policy will only be able to deliver half of the emission reductions needed to meet the Second Climate Change Act. However there is no need for massive and expensive infrastructure projects. Instead clever use of technology, a real boost for active travel and for accessible towns and workplaces are required to deliver a healthier and better-connected Scotland. Emphasis must be given to demand reduction.

Getting There lays out a sustainable transport hierarchy starting with the need to reduce the need for motorised transport, and considering how to get more people to use active travel. The next step is to encourage more efficient choices such as car-sharing, bus or train. As a third step vehicles should be made more efficient. Capacity increases are the last option, and only if the first three fail.

The Commission’s analysis and policy recommendations are set out in detail in the full report which you can download here: GETTING THERE (1.1 MB). It’s reasonably readable, not over long (36 pages), gives examples of successful sustainable transport schemes in Britain and abroad, and is not afraid to contradict Scottish Government policy (eg the report is critical of the decision to go ahead with the Aberdeen bypass without fully exploring alternative solutions to the north-east’s acknowledged traffic problems).

Briefly the report’s main recommendations are:

A focus on accessibility rather than mobility in measures and targets.
A sustainable transport investment hierarchy (see above).
Transport policy options must be assessed against criteria relating to a wider range of outcomes on health, wellbeing and social cohesion.
Government structures must be improved to give greater clarity about which part of government is responsible for making emission cuts and what their respective contributions are.

In addition there are specific recommendations in areas where there is a potential for a change in policy that can have, usually at relatively low cost, significant sustainability impacts.

The Sustainable Development Commission Scotland is the Scottish Government’s independent advisory body on sustainable development.