LOCAL TRANSPORT PROJECT EVALUATION AND NATIONAL ECONOMIC POLICY

There is a well established body of practice on how to evaluate the transport costs and benefits of transport projects -for example, congestion, accidents, petrol consumption, etc. Some consideration has also been given to a broader issue of economics, namely the possible effect of transport investment on industrial costs and hence on economic activity: studies suggest that the effect is small or undetectable. It may be that a different macro economic aspect is much more important, ie, the impact of and on national economic policy concerning public expenditure and unemployment. The question is, should such factors be included formally in the evaluation framework, and if so, how? One view is that all such aspects should be ignored, as outside the scope of technical competence and authority of transport bodies. Another is that to ignore such factors makes transport decision making ivory towered and irrelevant. A case study is discussed, where operating cost savings lead to higher unemployment expenditure and a pattern of costs and benefits falling on different authorities for the covering abstract of the seminar see TRIS 451949. (TRRL)