Traffic hits all-time high as bus passenger number fall paints ‘grim picture’
Traffic on Scotland’s roads has reached an all-time high with a record number of vehicles in use despite two decades of attempts to curb it since devolution, official figures showed.
The rise in 2018 was accompanied by a further drop in bus passengers, which have fallen by 10 per cent in five years, according to the Scottish Government’s Transport Scotland agency. Environmental campaigners Friends of the Earth Scotland said the figures painted a “grim picture”.
Air pollution campaigner Gavin Thomson said: “Years of splurging billions on newer and bigger roads has come at a huge cost to our climate, public health and the rest of our transport system.”
Total vehicle mileage increased by 151 million to almost 30 billion miles, and up 10 per cent in five years.
There were a total of 3m vehicles registered – up 1 per cent on 2017. But public transport journeys fell by 8m to 517m, mainly because of less bus use.
That went down by 2 per cent to 380m journeys compared to 2017, and was down by 10 per cent over the past five years.
Scotrail – Scotland’s main train operator – saw its passenger total unchanged on 2017 at 97.8m, but that was 13 per cent higher than in 2013. Air travel was up 2 per cent to 29.4m journeys and 27 per cent higher than five years previously.
There was also an 8 per cent rise in distance cycled on 2017.
Transport secretary Michael Matheson claimed “the future of buses in Scotland has never been brighter” because of “transformational” £500m funding to improve bus lanes and priority over other traffic so punctuality and reliability increased.
He was also confident other Scottish Government pledges
“will help deliver a more sustainable transport system”.
But Scottish Labour, which was in coalition with the Scottish Liberal Democrats from 1999 to 2007, said: “It’s clear 13 years of SNP mismanagement has hit our public transport system hard.” Transport spokesman Colin Smyth said: “We’re facing a climate emergency, yet the number of passengers using local bus networks is consistently declining.”