KEY ISSUES IN DEMAND MANAGEMENT

This paper presents some principles of demand management, and discusses some unresolved questions. In April 1989, the Department of Transport (DTp) issued revised traffic forecasts, to assess future demands for road capacity. They were discussed intensively by conferences, committees and working groups of almost all professional organisations involved in transport. The discussions' conclusions included: (1) a new consensus on the need for demand management for urban areas; (2) some elements of a new policy for rural areas; (3) identification of still unresolved issues in inter-urban road policy. Some tools and principles of successful demand management are stated. Relevant questions are: (1) whether roads can continue to be regarded as a public good; (2) what evaluation techniques should be used to appraise demand management strategy; (3) how to gain public acceptance of a locally applied demand management strategy; (4) the problem of 'induced traffic' in assessing road capacity. Three alternative policy scenarios are outlined: (1) priority for trunk road traffic; (2) 'let the market decide'; (3) priority for local conditions. Demand management problems can give rise to certain problems, especially when they are not implemented as an integrated total approach, but applied piecemeal. For example, some possible unintended side-effects are indicated for policies relating to commuting, pedestrianisation, park-and-ride, green belts, and road pricing. For the covering abstract see IRRD 866140.