2. • Part 1 – Low Emission Zones
• Part 2 – Bus Services
• Part 3 – Smart Ticketing
• Part 4 – Responsible Parking
• Part 5 – Road Works
• Part 6 – Miscellaneous and General
3. Part 1: Low Emission Zones
• Aim: to improve air quality
• Introduces: access restrictions to LEZs according to specified vehicle
emissions standards (Euro VI for diesel engines; Euro IV for petrol engines)
• Non-compliant vehicles entering the LEZ will be fined
4. Costs
• Cost of a new standard minibus – upwards of £40k
• Small scale nature of many community transport organisations means that they:
- Tend to have older vehicles
- Find it difficult to accumulate the necessary capital to become compliant
• Made more difficult by:
- The regulatory requirement that community transport organisations cannot
make a profit
- LEZs will likely devalue existing vehicles which do not use Euro VI engines
Costs for compliance will be prohibitive for many community transport organisations
5. Impact of LEZs on community transport
Action 1: changing operating models to using multiple cars/MPVs
Result:
– More environmentally friendly vehicles; but
– More vehicles on the road
– Higher cumulative emissions
– Greater congestion
Action 2: Stopping/reducing services to avoid fines
Result:
– Increase in loneliness and isolation for CT users
– Impact on health and social care services
6. Recommendations
• Consider exempting vehicles carrying specific categories of vulnerable
passengers accessing the most necessary services from penalties
• Provide funding
– Transport Scotland’s Bus Emissions Abatement Retrofit Programme
– Community Minibus Fund 2013/14
– Transport Scotland’s Green Bus Fund
• Commission a study on the impact of LEZs on not-for-profit organisations
7. Part 2: Bus Services
• Aim: to reverse the decline in bus patronage in Scotland by making bus
travel more accessible and better managed
• Introduces:
– Improved partnership arrangements
– Franchising powers for local authorities
– Measures to improve information and data available to passengers and
local transport authorities
8. Recommendations
CTA welcome all efforts to improve bus patronage and to address the quality,
affordability and accessibility of passenger transport.
To further these provisions, we would encourage:
• Making it an explicit requirement within legislation to coordinate with
community transport providers within the proposed partnership and
franchising arrangements
• A more integrated commissioning of bus services, which includes
community transport and which puts accessibility at its heart
9. Part 3: Smart Ticketing
Aim: to introduce a more consistent technological standard for smart ticketing
nationally
CTA support the inclusion of community transport into smart ticketing arrangements.
We believe that all user groups should have access to the benefits of smart ticketing,
such as reduced travel costs from using a smartcard.
We also recommend that:
• Community transport operators be assisted with set-up costs.
E.g. smart readers for Saltire cards were provided for free to operators
• Smart ticketing be extended to cover all Demand Responsive services
• An account-based payment system is developed, whereby users can be credited
with funds towards their transport costs
• Technology that alerts drivers to a passenger’s accessibility needs is incorporated
into any smart card solution
10. Part 4: Responsible Parking
• Aim: to improve safety and accessibility for all road users
• Introduces: prohibitions on double parking and parking on pavements
• CTA broadly support such arrangements, which can benefit users with
disabilities and larger vehicles such as minibuses
• However, to better protect the needs of vulnerable passengers, we
recommended:
– Discounted/free parking for volunteer drivers
– Set-down points for community minibuses
– Where set-down points are not viable, exemptions from double parking
restrictions for community transport operators
11. Conclusion
The Community Transport Association
• welcomes the intention to improve the air quality in Scotland’s cities with
the introduction of LEZs.
• supports transport localism and welcome Part 2 of the Bill which aims to
strengthen the power of local authorities so they can shape their local
transport networks for the benefit of their local communities.
• champions accessible and inclusive transport and support Part 3 of the
Bill which makes multi-modal transport more accessible, and Part 4 which
improves the accessibility of road and pavement spaces.
But further work is needed to ensure that the needs of vulnerable people and
the users of community transport are protected.
