Transport policy for liveability – Valuing the impacts on movement, place, and society

In many countries, there is a movement away from ‘car-centred’ policies and a stronger interest in developing healthy, equitable, and sustainable transport systems that enhance liveability. However, the translation of these new priorities into convincing ‘economic cases’ for funding agencies requires changes in appraisal methods. This paper reviews the state of the art in the appraisal of nine impacts of transport related to liveability: trip quality, time use in transport, place quality, time use in places, personal security, visual blight, community severance, equity/social inclusion, and health/wellbeing. We look at whether and how these impacts are currently appraised in practice and propose alternative methods based on a review of the literature and our suggestions. We found that there are robust methods to measure and monetise some of the impacts, but those methods tend to be integrated in national guidelines and are not always suitable at the city or regional level. Research on stated and revealed preferences methods has moved fast but application faces issues of complexity, transferability, and double counting. It is still difficult to monetise impacts such as time use in transport and visual blight without further methodological developments.