Motornormativity, community severance, transport poverty, forced car ownership, car bloat... All this & more unpacked in SPICe's latest transport blog. An excellent 8 minute read unpacking issues rarely understood outside academia and policy circles 👇 spice-spotlight.scot/2026/06/11/t...

Thinking about transport

This post briefly introduces some key transport policy concepts, with a view to informing debate on transport matters in the new parliamentary session, with a particular focus on road transport.

spice-spotlight.scot

A short thread on possibly the worst bit of transport policy analysis I have ever seen. See: www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

How has free bus travel for young people worked in Scotland?

As England moves to give people under the age of 15 free bus travel, under-22s in Scotland have had free bus passes for four years.

bbc.co.uk

Given the recent announcements about the A9 dualling, I had a quick dig to see if a revised Outline Business Case had been published. Nothing recent that I can see, but I did spot a November 2023 version, released under an FoI request that I haven't seen before.

Thought it worth highlighting, on the day the Scottish Government ruled out reducing the speed limit on single carriageway rural roads to 50mph, that research (www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...) into just such a move in France found that:

The Scottish Government's Medium Term Fiscal Strategy confirms a significant squeeze on the five year capital budget. Despite warm words on climate action the only transport capital project confirmed as going ahead is the £3.7bn A9 dualling. www.gov.scot/publications...

Scotland's Fiscal Outlook: The Scottish Government's Medium-Term Financial Strategy

This is the seventh Medium-Term Financial Strategy published by the Scottish Government. It provides the economic and fiscal context for the Scottish Budget and sets the medium-term strategy for susta...

gov.scot

The guys at the Cockburn really know how to breakfast if the noise can drown out the sound of cars, buses, delivery trucks, bin lorries and street sweepers.

A quick crunch of the numbers on Edinburgh Council's active and sustainable travel plans. democracy.edinburgh.gov.uk/documents/s8...

The Scottish Government has binned its commitment to reduce car travel by 20% by 2030 (base year 2019): www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/politic...

Plan to cut 20% of car journeys in Scotland by 2030 dumped by SNP Government

Car usage in Scotland would need to drop to a level last seen in 1994 if the ambitious target was to have been met.

dailyrecord.co.uk

I know reposting hot takes on Zelensky/Trump might feel like all we can do in the current climate. Trust me, if you are lucky enough to have a few spare quid then donating to this feels better: bank.gov.ua/en/news/all/...

NBU Opens Special Account to Raise Funds for Ukraine’s Armed Forces (updated)

  The National Bank of Ukraine has decided to open a special fundraising account to support the Armed Forces of Ukraine. The central bank’s decision comes after the Ukrainian gove...

bank.gov.ua

Also the wording of the written answer leaves scope for the ScotRail HSTs to be replaced by "newer" diesels. Potentially Voyagers or Meridians!

Scottish Ministers delay target date for the decarbonisation of the ScotRail train fleet by 10 years, from 2035 to 2045. www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-...

Transport Scotland has published research on local and national road user charging. This found either could reduce car use by 20% at reasonable cost to drivers. The accompanying policy note rules out a Scotland-wide road user charging scheme. www.transport.gov.scot/publication/...