Opinion: When will the government deliver its vision for fairer, greener and healthier transport?

There are huge risks associated with setting ambitious targets without clear delivery plans and bold decision-making to deliver and enable change. Following The Scottish Government‘s announcement that it has dropped the 20% car km reduction target, Sara Collier, CERG member, reflects on why we got here, and what should happen now.

After over 4 years of delays and lack of action, last week the Cabinet Secretary for Transport, Fiona Hyslop, finally announced that the Scottish Government’s ‘flagship’ target to reduce car kilometres by 20% is no more.

This was no surprise – the final Routemap to deliver the target was never published, let alone the required delivery plans or car demand management framework.

Critics of the target may point to the fact that from 2019-23 car use had only fallen by 3.6% (UK Government figures cited in Audit Scotland 2025). However, this isn’t evidence that the 20% target was unworkable, it is an inevitable consequence of the fact that no mechanisms to enable its delivery were ever put in place.  It is a crisis of delivery, not of vision or ambition.

Audit Scotland’s recent report highlighted serious concerns about lack of leadership, weak governance, fragmented and uncoordinated delivery, and limited evidence that the target or impacts on car use was being considered in wider decision-making.

The Scottish Government says any future target on car use reduction will be steered by advice on carbon budgets from the UK Climate Change Committee. While we welcome the effort to place climate considerations at the heart of policy decisions, the vision of shifting away from car-dominated travel to public, active and shared transport that underpins the 20% target, delivers far more than emissions reduction. It has a core role to play in reducing poverty, tackling inequality, and improving health outcomes – priorities that sit at the heart of this Scottish Government.

Delaying action and dropping targets undermines trust in the government and plays into the hands of net zero deniers. More importantly, in this case, it sets back progress for those people in Scotland who are unfairly trapped in an inequitable, unfair transport system that prioritises cars. 60% of the lowest income households and 46% of those with a long-term health problem or disability do not have access to a car.

The Climate Emergency Response Group, of which I am a member, has repeatedly raised concerns about the pitfalls of setting ambitious targets without clear delivery plans and bold decision-making that will deliver and enable change.

Many of the ‘characteristics that enable delivery’ highlighted by CERG in our 2024 ‘Stepping up to Delivery’ were absent or weak in this case, most significantly the need for ‘close cooperation and clearly defined roles and responsibilities between national, regional and local levels of Government’ (CERG, 2024).

CERG welcomes the Cabinet Secretary and COSLA’s assurances that reducing car use remains a national and local government priority. It is heartening to hear that local authorities, Regional Transport Partnerships and the Scottish Government are committed to work together on a renewed policy statement, delivery plan(s) and a regulatory review to enable cities to introduce certain car demand reduction measures, but it is regretful it has taken so long to get to this stage.

Over the next few months we need to see more than new high-level statements and a reworked target. New measures to improve the reliability and affordability of public transport, including bus priority, alongside other measures to reduce car reliance and tackle congestion in urban areas, could be introduced in next week’s Programme for Government and would demonstrate a strong signal from the First Minister of his commitment to deliver fairer, greener and healthier outcomes from transport.  

Important lessons must be learned from the case of the 20% car reduction target and applied across all climate policy and programmes.  All policies and proposals included within this year’s Climate Change Plan must have clear, costed and coordinated delivery mechanisms and these are closely monitored. We can’t afford to lose another 5 years.

Sara Collier, CERG Member.