Mistakes have been made, but will transport learn the lessons?

A group of the UK’s leading transport academics, commissioned by the Institution of Highways & Transportation to examine what has happened to transport in the last 50 years and determine what lessons can be learnt, has identified several key areas where transport policy making could be improved. Less clear, however, is whether this knowledge will lead to meaningful change. Rik Thomas reports

By Rik Thomas

19 September 2008

David Tarrant, IHT?president, brought together seven strands of academic research at the institution’s 2008 conference

Delegates at the 2008 IHT?presidential conference heard the University of the West of England’s Glenn Lyons suggest that perhaps the Government is not learning from its past mistakes

Over 200 transport professionals gathered in Portsmouth last week at the annual Institution of Highways and Transportation presidential conference to hear a group of leading academics summarise research into the lessons that can be learnt from the past 50 years of transport policy and practice. According to David Tarrant, IHT?president, opening the conference, “Whilst we have seen huge sums of money spent on providing new transport infrastructure in all its varying forms [over the past 50...