Traditional Transportation Planning and Its Alternatives

This paper critically reflects on traditional transportation planning and two potential alternatives: transportation planning for sustainability and transportation planning for accessibility. In the paper, the author views transportation planning as an institution consisting of a set of rules prescribing how decisions regarding interventions in the transportation system are to be prepared. Traditional transportation planning has matured over the last five decades into a powerful institution, providing clear rules on how to conduct ‘proper’ planning in the domain of transportation. At the same time, traditional transportation planning has been severely criticized. Transportation planning for sustainability and transportation planning for accessibility provide alternatives sets of rules. Based on the literature, the author defines the rules of these alternatives. The author shows that they have not yet developed into comprehensive alternatives for the traditional approach. Many of the rules leave the role of the transportation planner ill- defined and do not provide enough guidance regarding the type of information to be delivered to decision-makers. Furthermore, the rules substantially enlarge the scope of transportation planning beyond the ‘convenience zone’ of many transportation planners. The author concludes that will require a substantial effort to develop a consistent alternative for traditional transportation planning, that can both take away some of the criticism to traditional transportation planning, and can provide transportation planners with the guidance needed to carry out their role in the complex decision-making processes around interventions in the transportation system.