Multi-modal studies for a purpose, or just to be politically correct?

‘Multi-modal studies ten years on – what was good, what was bad, and do we need them in the future?’ That was the panel discussion topic at last week’s Modelling World event in London. It turned into a lively hour, as Andrew Forster reports

Andrew Forster

12 June 2015

"The Treasury looks across Government departments and, for all our faults, what they see is a Department and a sector that takes analysis seriously…" John Dowie, DfT director general for roads, traffic and local group

Baker: Multi-modal studies vital in conurbations but the modelling shouldn’t become all-consuming

Tugwell: Multi-modal studies helped build a coalition of support for investment packages

Not every DfT response to a House of Commons transport select committee reports merits front page treatment in LTT but when the Department responded to the committee’s report on roads last autumn, some of its comments jumped out of the page. The committee had criticised the DfT’s programme of road studies, saying that integrated transport studies for major corridors were needed instead. The DfT, however, was unmoved.

“We need to be realistic about the best way of integrating...