Monitoring and Modelling

Nestrans regularly monitors travel patterns to understand long-term trends across the region and their impacts on the Regional Transport Strategy. As part of the response to the Covid-19 pandemic, additional monitoring is being conducted through regular travel surveys.

Nestrans manage and maintain the Aberdeen Sub Area Model (ASAM), which is a multi-modal strategic model that is used to appraise and inform regional policies and projects.  It also provides strategic forecast data for the North East.  Access to ASAM information can be requested from the Transport Scotland Latis website as detailed below.

View Most Recent Travel Survey Results
View Most Recent RTS Monitoring Report

Travel Surveys

  • Nestrans as part of the response to the Covid-19 pandemic have commissioned consultants Systra, to carry out a series of 10 travel surveys (every four weeks) to try and gauge how people in the North East of Scotland are currently traveling and how they expect to travel in the future, as well as finding out their current issues and concerns.

    These travel surveys should help us to inform and plan for travel and transport in the area, in the short to medium term during the Covid-19 restrictions.

    Nestrans have secured grant funding from Paths for All, Smarter Choices, Smarter Places Open Fund, to help pay for these surveys.

North East Transport Behaviour and Attitude Surveys

1st Survey

Report 1: Executive Summary
Report 1: Full Report

Report 1: Technical Appendix

2nd Survey

Report 2: Executive Summary
Report 2: Full Report

Report 2 Technical Appendix

3rd Survey

Report 3: Executive Summary
Report 3: Final Report
Report 3: Technical Appendix

4th Survey

Report 4: Executive Summary
Report 4: Final Report
Report 4: Technical Appendix

5th Survey

Report 5: Executive Summary
Report 5: Final Report
Report 5: Technical Appendix

Nestrans Monitoring Report

The eleventh annual monitoring report was approved at the meeting of the Board on 24 June 2020, and is available in full here.

Previous versions of the Nestrans Monitoring Report can be found here.

The Nestrans Monitoring Report provides information and background data to support the development of the Regional Transport Strategy (RTS), first produced in 2008, with a refresh approved by Scottish Ministers in 2014.

The monitoring report is designed to show progress against the objectives of the RTS which is delivered by Nestrans and its partners. It should be noted that it has taken many years for the strategy to decisively influence most indicators and this process is still ongoing, but it is Nestrans’ intention to maintain regular monitoring of its targets and indicators. Nestrans itself may have limited influence over delivery against some of the indicators, however as the delivery of the RTS as a whole relies on the work of many partners, it is important to understand the wider progress and trends across the region. 

This report seeks to provide information and consider appropriate indicators for taking the RTS forward.  In particular, it contains SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time-Bound) targets to be refined as part of the Delivery Plan.  Targets, where possible, relate back to the strategy’s identified objectives and therefore the indicators too relate to objectives and the original strategy’s 21 strands.

Aberdeen Sub Area Model (ASAM)

The Aberdeen Sub Area Model (ASAM) is a multi-modal transport model and covers the main road and public transport network of Aberdeen City and Aberdeenshire.  It was developed by Nestrans in partnership with Aberdeen City and Aberdeenshire Councils, the Strategic Development Planning Authority and Transport Scotland.  The current version ASAM14 has a base year of 2014 and an update is currently being developed to reflect observed travel patterns following the opening of the Aberdeen Western Peripheral and will create a new base year of 2019. 

Transport Scotland manage requests for access to information from their national  model (Transport Model for Scotland) and various regional models, including ASAM, from their Land-use And Transport Integration in Scotland (LATIS) website.  Access to transport and travel data collected to support the creation of the models can also be requested.   

Should you wish to access information from ASAM or any of the LATIS models, then please complete a LATIS Request Form and submit it to latis@transport.gov.scot.  Successful applicants will be required to agree to the LATIS Terms of Use