6. Progress on our Sticking Points
Mobility and Access Committee for Scotland Annual Report 2020-2021
6. Progress on our Sticking Points
The areas below are a carry-over from last year and areas we have found more difficult to make progress on regardless of our level of engagement or interactions and the advice given by MACS.
Accessible Travel Framework (ATF)
During this reporting year MACS received an update from Transport Scotland’s Accessibility team on the progress of the ATF.
We were pleased to see, that despite many of the Accessibility Team being redeployed into Covid-19 priority areas, they prioritised the need to produce a Progress Report on the previous year’s delivery plan.
MACS also asked for updates on the following.
- How progress and the impact of the ATF and Annual Delivery Plan on disabled people’s travel will be measured. and;
- Existing or emerging linkages with other relevant strategies
MACS appreciated the work the team had taken to update them in all areas and also appreciated the time that they were taking to engage with disabled people to hear directly from them to inform the priorities for this year’s Delivery Plan.
Below is progress on the ATF as at April 2021.
Progress with the 48 issues
Image 2 - ATF update on 48 actions graph
Descriptor: the image shows progress on the 48 issues within the Accessible Travel Framework, with 17 completed, 19 described as a watching brief, 11 ongoing and one not started/paused.
Programme for Government (PfG)
MACS acknowledges that this year’s PfG looked very different and welcomed the commitments within it and the strongly worded, prominent commitment to ensure equality and human rights is at the heart of the approach across all areas.
MACS further welcomed the narrative confirming that it is essential that we continue to strengthen the approach to equality and human rights across Government by listening to, understanding and involving those affected by these policies. MACS are pleased with this development, which has sat at the heart of discussions with Scottish Ministers over the past couple of years. It also strongly aligns from MACS “calls” within last year’s Annual Report. This is a welcome approach from Government and MACS stands ready to offer support, commitment and innovative thinking where we can.
MACS recognises that the focus of the PfG is more important than ever, as we know disabled people and older people have been disproportionately affected by Covid-19.
Of particular interest to MACS within the PfG
- Taking forward ambitions for 20-minute neighbourhoods – Redesigning areas so people can meet most of their essential needs within a 20-minute walk or wheel. MACS will link this to making local neighbourhoods (paths, pavements, bus stops etcetera) accessible and obstruction-free, as we know there are many issues for disabled people navigating their local neighbourhoods. 20 minutes for many disabled and older people will still require local bus services or support to get about. Therefore the planning should also include the use of community transport infrastructure and Mobility as a Service (MaaS) innovations as well as the need for accessible parking where it is required. MACS is grateful to Transport Scotland’s Accessible Travel Team who supported a webinar in conjunction with Disability Equality Scotland to look at the concept through an equalities lens. This event was well received and attended and we are currently working with the Alliance Scotland and Disability Equality Scotland to explore these discussions further.
- The diagram below outlines the features of a 20-minute neighbourhood.
- Active Travel – To align with PfG, MACS will look to advocate for more inclusive options for active travel (including bike and ebike hire schemes) and focus again on paths and pavements for walking and wheeling – as we are well aware cycling is not the only form of active travel, and pedestrians and wheelies are often overlooked. We will raise awareness of the importance of walking and wheeling as a part of active travel and its important connection to the first and last mile of a journey. MACS will work to “lock-in” positive changes seen in the pandemic on active travel, where over £500 million of investment over 5 years for large-scale, transformational projects, access to bikes and behaviour change schemes are being introduced. We are already seeing some of this work by the likes of City Mobility who are keeping older and disabled people moving through the Scotland Cycle Repair Scheme. We hope to see more initiatives to make active travel inclusive for all.
- Low Emission Zones – In relation to the further roll-out of Low Emission Zones, MACS will continue to work to ensure these zones don’t force disabled people out by inadvertently creating additional barriers and challenges. We will, therefore, continue to engage with Transport Scotland’s appointed consultants DeBlur who are developing the smart phone application and non-smart phone back-up that will enable exemption to emission zones for disabled people.
- Review of Adult Social Care Services – MACS welcomed the Review of Adult Social Care Services (the Feeley report). We had already written to and had discussions with the Chair of the Review Board to highlight the integral part that the availability of accessible and affordable transport plays to ensure access for social care not provided at home. We gained agreement for MACS Recommendation One from our phase-one work Transport to Health and Social Care to be noted within the review.
Additionally MACS will continue to push for a widening of the national concessionary travel scheme to address the exclusion of those who qualify but are currently excluded from using the scheme as it is currently designed by Transport Scotland.
Traveline Scotland
MACS are pleased to see some improvements moving forward with Traveline Scotland. From last year’s report we raised issues in relation to the accessibility of their android application. Traveline Scotland were also issued with a third party report in Summer 2019, and from their own web and app supplier in 2020, that identified a number of accessibility issues. Where possible these have been addressed in a fix in 2019 and 2020 and the app updated in accord, with more improvements expected over this year. Recent feedback to Traveline Scotland from MACS has again highlighted ongoing issues with regards to the Android app, website, and mapping/searching with TalkBack and other screenreaders, and Traveline Scotland has requested the supplier to revisit this issue. MACS are also keen to see the release notes detailing the full list of changes or improvements made to ensure all of the specified access barriers have been addressed where possible.
As Scotland’s Coronavirus lockdown eases, the demand on the service, including from disabled people, will increase, especially as Traveline continues to remain the signposted go-to place for journey planning, particularly in Scottish Government communications. It is therefore essential that disabled people are able to plan their journeys, which includes the accessibility measures to meet their needs; for example, lowered kerbs, lifts, clear directions with marked distances, information on accessible buses, and stops etcetera.
This is currently still not possible, with many people being excluded from using the journey-planning tool due to a lack of suitable data for the app to then provide for their accessibility needs. MACS will keep this in their sights and have alerted Scottish Ministers and Transport Scotland to these issues.
However, I am pleased to report that some progress and a step in the right direction is underway with Transport Scotland looking to procure for the next generation travel data, and a series of workshops are currently underway to define the necessary technical functions and non-functional requirements.
A webinar is being scheduled dedicated to exploring and understanding disabled people’s user needs, looking at research undertaken to date, emerging service changes, and associated standards. The outputs from this will feed into this next stage in Traveline’s development and MACS are looking forward to the outputs from this and future work.
Vehicle Service Access Regulations (PSVAR)
MACS are disappointed at the further extension to PSVAR granted by the UK Government and DfT. We understand that the latest exemption is now due to be in place until 30 September 2021. We have already raised our concerns about these exemptions being repeatedly extended, with Transport Scotland and through the Four Nations Forum, where our colleagues from the other UK access and mobility Committees share our frustration at the continued exemptions being granted, as the industry has had ample time to prepare. MACS are aware that this is a reserved matter. Reports to date suggest that DfT are continuing to review the situation.