Scottish Government

SCOTTISH EXECUTIVE CENTRAL RESEARCH UNIT

Development Department Research ProgrammeResearch Findings No. 133

Rural Accessibility

Derek Halden (Derek Halden Consultancy), John Farrington (Aberdeen University)
and Andrew Copus (Scottish Agricultural College)

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Main Findings

• Rural dwellers are generally content with the trade off they have made sacrificing accessibility benefits for other quality of life gains. To overcome accessibility difficulties, car based solutions, with a managed approach to providing lifts for those without their own cars, are generally viewed as the most promising approach, but bus and other community transport initiatives are also suggested, particularly for elderly people.
• Social exclusion is greatest amongst unemployed and elderly people but most people can give examples of being excluded from some social and leisure activities due to access problems.
• Increased public funding is delivering more bus miles, but there are mixed messages about the success of services in delivering accessibility improvements, demonstrating a requirement for more rigorous needs based appraisal in transport planning and monitoring.
• Rural residents, local authorities, and transport operators all highlight concerns about the low use of many rural bus services. To overcome these problems, rural accessibility planning by trip purpose and population group is needed with:
  • A major culture change in attitudes towards rural public and community transport by both transport users and providers, facilitated through community planning.
  • An effective dialogue between all groups encouraging greater "ownership" of sustainable and workable solutions, including some softening of existing boundaries between the administration of public and community transport.
  • A step by step approach towards better co-ordination of rural transport resources and management recognising that, although significant obstacles will take time to overcome, short term progress is possible.

Survey and Analysis Findings

An extensive survey programme was undertaken of rural dwellers, local authorities and transport operators in five areas of Scotland identifying that:

• Expectations of rural accessibility are consistent with the type of area. The quality and amenity of rural areas is the main reason why people choose to live there, and people are broadly content with their relatively poor accessibility provided they have a car available. The need for some services to be provided locally is common to all types of rural area with local services such as shops and post offices being viewed as important, both for sustaining the rural economy, and for their accessibility advantages.
• The least affluent people are less content, partly because they feel constrained to live in the rural area due to family ties or other factors, and partly due to their poor accessibility.
• All people groups in all areas rank car travel as the most useful mode. The importance of car, taxi, rail, walk and cycle all increase with income, but the importance of bus travel decreases with increasing income. Satisfaction with bus services is greatest in the commuter rural areas. In more remote areas, detailed planning and flexibility by travellers is needed for buses to be a practical option.
• Better co-ordination of rural transport services is viewed as a high priority by all groups, and an improved dialogue is needed between service users and providers to build joint confidence and ownership in new approaches.
• Amongst car users, expenditure on fuel exceeds the national average by 50 to 100% with the most affluent people spending the most. Opinion is divided amongst those surveyed on whether fuel tax levels are appropriate.
• Use of telephone and internet shopping and banking is greatest amongst the higher income groups, and use of local facilities is greatest amongst the poorest.
• Most people find ways to overcome accessibility limitations but the costs of doing so are greatest for the least wealthy people.

Analysis of travel behaviour and rural accessibility demonstrates both qualitative and quantitative approaches for assessing needs and problems. Using readily available data on services, facilities, and transport services, accessibility measures can explain the travel choices for residents in all types of rural area.

Use of these techniques in appraisal could assist policy makers and planners working with local communities and transport operators to deliver improvements. Quantitative analysis is more useful than qualitative appraisal since it allows more direct comparisons of investment options locally and nationally, but qualitative analysis is still useful to check, calibrate and validate quantitative measures.

Planning for Better Accessibility

Classification of rural accessibility characteristics, for planning and investment needs, should take account of the trip purpose, population group (including tourists) and type of geographical area, in that order.

Assessing the accessibility needs of rural dwellers involves consideration of expressed, stated, comparative, and community need. Expressed need is demonstrated through observed demand, stated need through surveys of the local community, but for an objective view of comparative and community need accessibility analysis is required.

Each stakeholder has different aims for the development of rural facilities and transport services, but improvements in rural accessibility are common goals for all stakeholders, helping to facilitate integrated action. As shown in Figure 1, accessibility analysis can be used to build joint understanding of problems and joint commitment to solutions.

Rural accessibility trade-offs can only be fully resolved through community planning, with each stakeholder contributing resources commensurate with the benefits they receive. Scottish Executive, local authorities, health and economic development agencies, transport operators and community groups can build practical and affordable action programmes around defined aims for access for various trip purposes. Measures of access to hospitals, shopping, post offices, banks, regional centres, employment centres, and other facilities, and access of facilities by different population groups, will all be required in particular circumstances.

Co-ordinated action on rural transport can be managed through local rural transport strategies. Rural accessibility planning can help to prioritise transport activities and integrate them with rural non transport policy.

Recommendations

To provide a framework for integrated action on rural transport, national targets should be set for access to employment, hospitals, post offices, shopping and other key services. Achievable and measurable accessibility goals should also be defined within local transport strategies to allow the contribution of public and community transport initiatives to be assessed on a common basis.

To set these goals and targets, and monitor progress, consistent and repeatable analysis methods are required at both local and national levels. Assumptions, data sources and calculation methodologies should therefore be set out clearly for all analyses. Accessibility planning approaches for transport and non transport sectors are still evolving, so continuing support is needed to encourage wider use of these techniques and to foster good practice.

Effective co-ordination of rural transport has proved to be an elusive goal, so the Scottish Executive should sponsor a demonstration project, or projects, to identify how obstacles can be overcome and to demonstrate practical co-ordination between public, community, health, social work and education transport. Either associated with these demonstration projects or as a separate initiative "dialogue marketing" of rural transport services should be tested in rural Scotland with individual and group action programmes providing practical information to travellers and transport operators on services and travel needs.

Research methods

Surveys were undertaken in five areas of Scotland, using a postal survey of 725 residents to establish travel patterns; a telephone survey of 250 residents to define perceptions of accessibility; and five focus groups to examine options to improve accessibility. Local authorities and key transport operators were also interviewed to establish current policies and concerns about rural accessibility.

The five study areas were:

• West Aberdeenshire - Relatively affluent mixed commuter and agricultural characteristics,
• East Ayrshire - Agricultural and declining industrial area,
• Central Caithness and Sutherland - Remote mainland,
• East Lothian - Relatively affluent commuter area,
• Wigtownshire - Deep rural and agricultural area.

Using data on services and facilities from the Scottish Executive Geographical Information Systems (SEGIS), published public transport timetable information, and road network information, accessibility levels were calibrated against the observed travel patterns from the postal surveys.

The qualitative views and quantitative analysis allowed the main factors affecting travel behaviour and transport derived social exclusion in rural areas to be defined, supporting recommendations for the planning, management, operation and analysis of rural accessibility.