Chapter 30: Multicriteria Evaluation of Transport Policies

Transport has been at the origin of the economic development of many countries. Transport is to a large extent a derived demand, but its evolution also determines the welfare of cities, regions, and nations. This two-faceted role means that it is necessary to evaluate the role that transportation plays in society with care.

In general, transportation – and spatial interaction – mirrors the socio-economic, spatial, and political dynamics of societies. In the 1960s, a period with unprecedented economic growth in many Western countries, transportation policies were strongly oriented toward network and capacity expansion. From the 1970s onward, however, the “limits to growth discussion” marked a more modest role for infrastructure policy, in which the efficient use of existing networks received more attention than the straightforward expansion of the physical network. The 1980s saw the emergence of new views, reflected in the environmentalist movement (e.g. green parties), with its strong concern about the negative impact of transport on the general quality of life (Banister et al., 1997). From the 1990s onward, there has also been considerable interest in the potential of modern technologies (e.g. telecommunication) for network improvement, notably in the context of the “missing networks discussion” and of the evolving network economies (e.g. Handy and Mokhtarian, 1995; European Industrial Bank, 1996).