Edinburgh Napier University

  Scotland’s National Transport Strategy recognises the numerous challenges
facing transport in Scotland in the years ahead. It highlights the need for an
efficient, integrated and reliable transport network that promotes health and
social inclusion by improving connections and accessibility at the same time
as reducing the impact of transport on the environment.
The issue of accessibility and seamless sustainable journeys is a challenge
faced by many European countries, but whilst many initiatives aimed at
achieving this are adopted by cities and regions across Europe what is often
lacking is a measure of how successful such schemes are at achieving their
goals. The EU-funded project ISEMOA aims to help local and regional
authorities in Europe to increase energy-efficiency in transport by improving
the accessibility of door-to-door mobility-chains and thus enabling all citizens
and visitors (including people with reduced mobility) to adopt a less cardependent
life-style. In order to achieve this goal, ISEMOA is developing
tailor-made quality-management-schemes for continuously improving
accessibility, based on standardised quality management processes.
This paper examines how such a quality management scheme can be
employed as a practical tool in Scotland and its implications for fulfilling the
objectives of the National Transport Strategy.