Monitoring our progress
Our Monitoring and Evaluation Strategy, published in 2021, established our approach to report on the performance of the National Transport Strategy over the short, medium and long term. A baseline report which sets out the key indicators that underpin the Strategy provides data related to the transport sector in 2019 and the context surrounding travel behaviours, emissions, freight, barriers and access to transport and safety issues. As the report focuses on data, it largely omits discussion of transport policy.
Though we have continued to collect and publish transport and travel data through our annual official statistical publications, it has not been possible to accurately report on the performance of the Strategy on an annual basis. This is primarily due to our data collection methods being affected by the pandemic and comparisons between the baseline position and travel in 2020 and 2021 not being robust due to the profound impact that the pandemic had on travel behaviour over this period.
We will produce a three-yearly evaluation report in 2024, which will include the baseline data and updates from 2020, 2021 and 2022, qualitative case studies from our stakeholder groups and transport partners and data from additional sources.
This will be a comprehensive report, focusing on a wider set of data, to provide an overview of the Strategy’s performance to date against the outcomes and vision it has set out to achieve. The three-yearly evaluation report will enable us to present a more assessment of the strategy, drawing on data that reflects transport and travel behaviours both during and crucially, post-pandemic.
In addition to specific monitoring of the Strategy’s headline indicators, Transport Scotland undertakes a range of analytical activity which contributes to our understanding of how the Strategy is performing. This includes:
- Routine analysis of car and public transport demand
- Monitoring and reporting on a number of policy frameworks including the Road Safety Framework; Active Travel Outcomes Framework; and Accessible Travel Framework
- Climate Change Dashboard
- Policy and Programme Evaluation.
We will feed existing targets and strategic objectives into the overall performance monitoring, such as achieving net zero by 2045 and our road safety targets, and we will show the links between the Strategy and the National Performance Framework and the UN Sustainable Development Goals.