Transport poverty – a public health issue

The Public Health and Sustainable Transport Partnership Group, hosted by Public Health Scotland, has published a new briefing on transport poverty.

Transport plays a vital role in our health and wellbeing. It provides links to education and employment, to social connections, to affordable and quality nutrition, and to leisure activities.

A lack of transport options that are available, reliable, affordable, accessible and safe, referred to as transport poverty, creates serious health and social implications by blocking people’s ability to meet their daily needs and provide a good quality of life.

Based on a review of key literature and engagement with a wide range of partners, this briefing highlights the causes of transport poverty and how it contributes to poor health, providing recommendations to increase awareness of the issue and guide actions for change.

Ruth Glassborow, Director of Place and Wellbeing at Public Health Scotland, said:

"At a time when life expectancy is falling and social inequalities are widening, transport poverty is adding to those problems with adverse effects on health and health inequalities.

"Working with key stakeholders, the Public Health and Sustainable Transport Partnership Group has developed both a working definition of transport poverty, and a model describing the main causes and the ways in which it influences health and health inequalities.

"By encouraging stakeholders from all sectors to adopt the definition and use the model to monitor, evaluate and inform actions in their own area, we can reduce transport poverty in Scotland."

View the Transport poverty briefing.