Dale speaks to transport correspondent Alastair Dalton about the proposals to lower the national speed limit to 50mph
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00:00Hello, and welcome to the Scotsman's Daily Video Bulletin for this Thursday.
00:04My name's Dale Miller, I'm Deputy Editor of the Scotsman, and I'm joined by our Transport
00:09Correspondent, Alastair Dalton.
00:10Now, Alastair, I know there's some background noise, so I'm going to speak up a little bit
00:16as we're going through.
00:17You're at an expo, but tell us, where are you?
00:20What's the purpose of it there tonight?
00:23Yeah, so I'm at the Road Expo Scotland event at the SEC in Glasgow.
00:30And tell us a little bit about what's being talked about there.
00:34So the main event yesterday here was the Transport Secretary, Fiona Hyslop, announcing a very
00:42significant potential change to speed limits north of the border, particularly to cut the
00:50limit on single carriageway rural roads from the standard 60 miles an hour down to 50
00:57miles an hour.
00:58And that's primarily to reduce the rising tide of road deaths in Scotland.
01:06Along with that, she also is proposing an increase in the lorry speed limit on the same
01:14type of roads from 40 to 50.
01:17This is something that's already happening south of the border and has been trialled
01:21on the A9 between Inverness and Perth.
01:25As well as that, lorries would be allowed to drive at 60 rather than 50 on dual carriageways.
01:34We can talk about the Scotsman's front page at this point, because we did splash on the
01:39story that Alastair Dalton's told you about there, a suggested reduction to 50 miles per
01:44hour on single carriageways.
01:47The reaction to this is interesting, some supportive, but some critical of whether there
01:55would need to be more enforcement effectively or a more visible police presence or more
02:00speed cameras to actually make sure that people adhere to this new speed limit.
02:05Alastair, just going back to you, what do you think of some of the reaction?
02:10Is this a policy that will actually get the outcome that they're after, which is reducing
02:15deaths?
02:18Scottish governments say that it should reduce deaths by three or four a year, which is important
02:25but perhaps not the step change they need.
02:30Because Scotland has a very ambitious target of not only halving road deaths by 2030, eliminating
02:38them completely by 2050, but also they say they want to have the safest, the best road
02:44safety performance in the world.
02:47On the measure they've set themselves, they're only about a third down the table of about
02:5642 countries.
02:58They're behind Nordic countries, Japan, other countries, and particularly other parts of
03:05the UK like England.
03:07So they've got some way to go.
03:10So they'll be looking at anything they can do to reduce that total, which has gone up
03:16this year, perhaps by as much as a quarter.
03:20However, the reaction, as you mentioned, has been mixed.
03:25Some are saying this is a good idea, but it must be enforced.
03:31Others are saying the focus should be on either policing the current limit, increasing
03:38the number of average speed cameras, or to make further improvements to the roads themselves.
03:45Yeah, look, some interesting comments there from we saw the Greens who were generally
03:51supportive but said it needs enforcement effectively.
03:55Also, Neil Gregg, who's a well-recognised transport expert, those that follow the Scotsman's
04:00coverage will know he's been quoted frequently over the journey saying that it looms as a
04:05bit of a cheap gimmick if it's not actually policed effectively.
04:10So an interesting stance.
04:13It relates back to our A9 series as well, which, Alastair, I know you were involved in.
04:18All our readers can catch up on all that coverage that we ran earlier this month at
04:23Scotsman.com. Just navigate towards the transport tab in the navigation bar and you'll get all
04:28the latest on that.
04:30I should flag as well, Alastair, there should be an update around the potential duelling
04:34decision on the road between Inverness and Aberdeen today with some suggestions that
04:40duelling works or progress could be put off further.
04:43What's your feel of things on the ground there?
04:46Is that a critical project and is that being discussed at all at the expo?
04:53Yeah, the A96, just like the A9, was pledged to be duelled entirely over its 100 mile
04:59length between Inverness and Aberdeen by the Scottish Government more than a decade
05:03ago. Its progress on that scheme has been slowed because as part of the power sharing
05:09agreement with the Scottish Greens, the road that project was to be reviewed, unlike the
05:15A9, which has continued with the duelling, even though the completion has been put back
05:2110 years.
05:22It's difficult to see the Scottish Government this afternoon going ahead with a full duelling
05:30with any new date.
05:31The original date was 2030, particularly as they're so incredibly short of money for any
05:38transport projects or other schemes.
05:42They've committed to some limited duelling at the northern end and will perhaps be
05:47looking for a longer timescale for other parts.
05:51But the Scottish Conservatives, which are strong in the north-east of Scotland, have been
05:55campaigning for this, while at the other side of the argument, the Greens are saying there's
06:00no economic case for duelling the road.
06:04And Alastair, the timing's interesting, ahead of a Scottish budget on Wednesday next week
06:09where the SNP know they need the support of another party, perhaps the Greens, to actually
06:15get the budget passed through.
06:16So it will be a watch this space.
06:18You'll get the latest coverage on that at Scotsman.com today.
06:23You can read Alastair's story on the proposal that's being consulted on to cut the speed
06:29limit at Scotsman.com as well.
06:30And over coming days, you'll get the latest of Alastair's coverage from the Expo itself.
06:36Alastair, thanks for battling the noise at that end to come to us live.
06:41Thanks, everyone, for joining us.
06:42You can follow us on Facebook, X, Instagram, Blue Sky, and please go out and buy a copy
06:47of the paper tomorrow in print.
06:48Thanks for joining us.