WHAT HAPPENED TO THE SYSTEMS APPROACH? EVALUATION OF ALTERNATIVES IN PLANNING FOR MAJOR TRANSPORT PROJECTS

Transport planning is, or at least should be, an exercise in decision-making. While the ultimate decision-makers are elected politicians, decisions are made on the basis of information supplied by professional transport planners. This paper is about the extent to which such information enables a genuine choice to be made between alternative courses of action. The idea of planning as a choice between alternative options or policies can be traced to the 'systems approach' to transport and land-use planning developed in the 1960s, but was reinforced in the 1970s with the introduction of environmental impact assessment. This paper considers the extent to which evaluation of alternatives forms part of the practice of transport planning in Australia, by considering recent major projects in Canberra, Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne. (a) For the covering entry of this conference, please see ITRD abstract no. E210413.

• Corporate Authors:

  NZ INSTITUTE OF HIGHWAY TECHNOLOGY LTD

  PO BOX 4273
  NEW PLYMOUTH,   New Zealand 
• Authors:
  • MEES, P
• Conference:
  • AUSTRALASIAN TRANSPORT RESEARCH FORUM (ATRF), 26TH, 2003, WELLINGTON, NEW ZEALAND
• Publication Date: 2003

Language

• English

Media Info

• Features: References;
• Pagination: 11 p.

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Conferences; Decision making; Environmental impact analysis; Land use; Management; Planning; Policy; Transportation
• Geographic Terms: Australia
• ITRD Terms: 155: Administration; 8006: Australia; 8525: Conference; 2248: Decision process; 2436: Impact study (environment); 356: Land use; 143: Planning; 173: Policy; 1155: Transport
• Subject Areas: Administration and Management; Planning and Forecasting; Policy; Transportation (General);

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00975560
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: ARRB
• Files: ITRD, ATRI
• Created Date: Jul 7 2004 12:00AM