Transport policy: a critical role for strategic environmental assessment

Transport policy - where it exists formally and strategically at - is frequently unsustainable in the author's view because the environment has rarely featured as a primary objective in the pas Only a fundamental shift in transport policy formulation which incorporates the environment and sustainable development into the objectives transport policy will bring about a real change in impact transport has on the environment. The economic motor whic has driven transport policy for so long (even though a questionab basis in itself) is no longer appropriate in the context sustainable development. Yet it still predominates. The view governments is still to take account of the environment, not to make it a central objective. In this paper some specific transpo policy issues are discussed: the Trans European Network for Transport; motorway charging; airports; and new road construction Only a systematic assessment environmental impacts prior to th adoption a policy or policy change will enable a sensible choi options to be made. In many cases the rhetoric is already the but not the action. Strategic environmental assessment (SEA) - a part objectives-led policy formulation - is the logical answer but few politicians yet seem willing to support it.