RERC consortium members at the Centre for Transport Policy, the Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen, undertook two pieces of strategic policy oriented research in the first phase. Following the publication of the Road Pricing Feasibility Study (Department for Transport , 2004), they undertook an extensive review of the literature on the potential impacts of national road user charging on rural areas. They have also contributed a more speculative ‘think piece’ in an area that has so far received comparatively little attention, entitled 'Community transport, social capital and social exclusion in rural areas.'