Transport policy making has become increasingly complex in recent years as various ‘intermediate’ levels of governance between local authorities and central government have acquired a new prominence. In particular, the introduction of devolution has created new elected administrations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, and the English regions have also become more important as administrative units. Such transfers of power have not entirely satisfied arguments for reforming transport governance, however, as we demonstrate in this chapter. The emergence of new governing bodies raises important questions about the extent to which policies diverge and/or converge between jurisdictions, since there can be substantially different interpretations of what sustainable transport actually means in different places. Devolution granted the new Scottish Parliament and Welsh and Northern Irish Assemblies considerable latitude to determine their own policy priorities – indeed, one of its key underlying rationales is to foster distinctive ‘local solutions’ to ‘local problems’ (Adams and Schmuecker, 2005) – although in practice this tends to be balanced by pressures to ensure that devolved policies do not contradict those pursued by the central state (Smyth, 2003). MacKinnon et al (2008) note that the impact of devolution has received less attention in transport studies compared to neighbouring fields of enquiry such as economic development or health, although some research has considered the effects of institutional arrangements on transport policy implementation (Rye et al, 2003; Cole, 2005; Marsden and May, 2006; Docherty et al, 2007; MacKinnon et al, 2008).

This chapter examines the relationship between changing spaces of governance and transport policy across the UK. We begin by introducing the notion of geographical scale and considering its significance in the context of UK transport policy. This is followed by a discussion of policy divergence and convergence. We then provide a substantive examination of transport policy across the different spaces of governance in the UK. This is structured into two main parts. First, we outline the development of transport policy at the national scale, focusing particularly on the devolved jurisdictions of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Second, we assess developments at the subnational scale, highlighting the emergence of a stronger regional dimension, primarily in England, but also in Scotland and Wales. A concluding section draws out the key points of the chapter and considers their implications.