Transport strategy for metropolitan Adelaide

The focus of public sector transport planning has changed considerably in the last 20 or 30 years. Whereas emphasis was on the supply of transport infrastructure and services in the past, the current focus is on influencing transport demand to make better use of transport infrastructure and to reduce the demand for private vehicle travel. Transport planning has, however, remained focused on visions and intervention by governments to secure the desired future. This paper argues that transport and related decisions are made in the market, and that the potential for governments to intervene in the market to secure a particular outcome is limited. Instead, there is a need for transport planning to use tools more familiar to economists to identify deficiencies in the transport market and to develop strategies and policies which are more market-oriented and hence more likely to be successful.