Broadening Quantitative Appraisal in Transportation Decision Making Processes Through Effective Stakeholder Engagement

The quality of the decision process is key to successful transport planning. This paper analyses different transport planning decision models and discusses their underlying assumptions, their merits and their limits. It particularly focuses on a conceptual model of strategic transport planning as a cognitive, multi-stage decision-making process involving stakeholders at all stages and accounting for levels of uncertainty. The model identifies technical assessment, process management and public engagement as the key transport planning activities, specifying the interplay among them. It also allows for changes in objectives, strategies and approaches during the process, as are likely to be required due to political, economic and social changes during the planning and construction process.