Scotland's Road Safety Framework

Scotland's Road Safety Framework to 2030

The Road Safety Framework to 2030 sets out a compelling long-term vision for road safety, Vision Zero, where there are zero fatalities and injuries on Scotland’s roads by 2050.

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Overarching context

Scotland’s new National Transport Strategy (NTS2) published in February 2020 sets out an ambitious and compelling vision of our transport system for the next 20 years, in order to address the key challenges we face.

The strategy provides us with a transport system that will enhance opportunities and encourage long-term, sustainable development. It calls for an inclusive, safe and accessible system to help deliver a healthier, fairer and more prosperous Scotland for its communities, businesses and visitors alike. It sets out priorities to support that vision. These are to reduce inequalities, take climate action, help deliver inclusive economic growth and improve health and wellbeing.

In December 2020, we published our first annual Delivery Plan for the Strategy. This brings together, for the first time, Scottish Government actions for achieving the NTS2 vision and priorities which includes the publication of this Road Safety Framework as part of actions under the NTS2 Health and Wellbeing priority which support delivery of the outcome of having a transport system that is safe and secure for all.

COVID-19 has had a profound impact on transport. Car traffic levels dropped to around 25% of 2019 levels between 9 March and 6 September 2020, but had recovered to 91% of 2019 levels by the end of the six month period. The reasons for how, why and when people travel have fundamentally changed. There has been a mass shift to home working in some professions. Sustained remote and local working practices could promote a better work/life balance and result in less exposure to air pollution, while also causing less congestion.

We are now in an environment where the move to low and zero carbon transport is essential to our future wellbeing. In response to the global climate emergency, the Scottish Government has made one of the most ambitious climate commitments in the world: to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2045. Over the 20-year period of NTS2, the role of transport in achieving this target will be crucial, requiring the further development and use of low carbon technology. It will also require significant societal changes, including a reduction in the demand for unsustainable travel. This was epitomised by the Scottish Government’s commitment to reduce car kilometres by 20% by 2030, through improved transport and planning approaches, better utilisation of space and place-setting, enhanced digital connectivity and an increased location focus. By 2032 and in a post COVID-19 era, the pendulum will have swung away from the dominance of private car use, particularly single occupancy, to a society which has embraced more walking, wheeling, cycling, public transport and shared transport options, particularly in urban settings.

Importantly, NTS2 signals the future direction of transport and provides the context within which decisions, in and beyond government, will need to be made. These ambitions also extend into the strategic transport investment decisions that will be made a part of the second Strategic Transport Projects Review 2. The Road Safety Framework to 2030 has taken into consideration the Scottish Government’s ambitions, mentioned above, as well as the overarching context in which road safety operates (see figure 1 below).

Road safety policy and delivery will play a pivotal role in supporting policies and priorities, and can help achieve outcomes across a number of Strategic Priorities through its support of:

  • The Climate Emergency for a ‘healthier society, and a diversified, resilient and sustainable economy
  • The Active Travel Vision for Scotland
  • Scotland’s Public Health for ‘a Scotland where we live in vibrant, healthy and safe places and communities’
  • Justice Strategy for Scotland where ‘We live in safe, cohesive and resilient communities’
  • Education to assess and manage risk, and understand the impact of risk-taking behaviour
  • The National Performance Framework where ‘We live in communities that are inclusive, empowered, resilient and safe’
  • The National Planning Framework with ‘A successful sustainable place – supporting economic growth, regeneration and the creation of well-designed places’

The place principle applies to road safety partners responsible for providing services and looking after assets through ‘a place to work and plan together to support inclusive and sustainable economic growth and create more successful places’

The framework sits within a wider UN/EU/UK context; for example, our road casualty reduction targets for 2030 take cognisance of the UN resolution A/74/L.86 “Improving global road safety” adopted on 30 August 2020 and the Stockholm Declaration, agreed by UN Member States in February 2020, calling for a reduction in road traffic deaths and serious injuries by at least 50% from 2020 to 2030, a commitment to collect data on serious injuries and providing targets to reduce fatalities and serious injuries among pedestrians, cyclists, motorcyclists and other vehicle users. In June 2019, the European Commission published its EU Road Safety Policy Framework 2021-2030 which contains the EU’s long-term strategic goal of “Vision Zero” – no deaths or serious injuries on European roads – by 2050. Road safety in Scotland is also governed by various pieces of legislation dealing with reserved issues such as motoring offences, vehicle standards and driving licencing or national speed limits.

Many of the road safety issues in the last decade at UN/EU or UK level have also been experienced in Scotland; there has been a substantial reduction in killed and seriously-injured casualties (KSIs) since the 1970s, but the recent plateauing of these reductions means road safety needs to be raised to the top of the agenda. Most developed countries recognise that, to achieve further reductions in KSIs, a step change in road safety delivery is required: from providing focus for improved joint working, to embedding the Safe System ambition and approach into the delivery of national and local activity.

Latest official data allows us to measure progress against Scotland’s Road Safety Framework 2020 targets; (see 4 Graphs below)

  • 165 people were killed in 2019, a reduction of 43% since the baseline (performance currently exceeding the 2020 target of a 40% reduction).
  • 2,016 people were seriously injured in 2019. Due to the changes in the recording of casualty severities, following Police Scotland’s use from around June/July 2019 of a new accident and casualty data recording system called CRaSH (Collision Reporting and Sharing), progress against this target is measured on the basis of adjusted figures, which show a reduction of 51% from the baseline (performance not currently on track to meet the 2020 target of a 55% reduction).
  • On average, there were three children killed each year between 2017 and 2019: a reduction of 83% from the baseline (performance currently exceeding the 2020 target of a 50% reduction).