Nature of Transport Policy

The Nature of Transport Policy

Author : Dr. Brian Slack

NOTE: Parts of this section have been removed because of their inclusion in the textbook "The Geography of Transport Systems" published in June 2006 by Routledge.

1. Defining Policy and Planning

The terms "policy" and "planning" are used very loosely and are frequently interchangeable in many transport studies. Mixing them together is misleading. Policy and planning represent separate parts of an overall process of intervention. There are circumstances where policy may be developed without any direct planning implications, and planning is frequently undertaken outside any of direct policy context. However, precise definitions are not easily come by. For example here are two definitions of policy:

"A set of principles that guide decision-making or the processes of problems’ resolution" [Studnicki-Gizbert, 1974].

"The process of regulating and controlling the provision of transport" [Tolley and Turton, 1995].

Transport planning is facing a similar issue related to its definition:

"Transport planning is taken to be all those activities involving the analysis and evaluation of past, present and prospective problems associated with the demand for the movement of people, goods and information at a local, national or international level and the identification of solutions in the context of current and future identification of economic, social, environmental, land use and technical developments and in the light of the aspirations and concerns of the society which it serves" [Transport Planning Society, UK]

"A programme of action to provide for present and future demands for movement of people and goods. Such a programme is preceded by a transport study and necessarily includes consideration of the various modes of transport" [European Environment Information and Observation Network]

In this chapter the following definitions are used:

Transport policy: The development of a set of... [continues]

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