Like any decisions, transport policy decisions should be rational. Rationality is often defined relative to the goals that the agent has. Policy goals are not self-evident as principles of rational choice, not even the goal of efficiency, and must be accepted to be principles of rational choice. Transport policy decisions often involve large monetary expenses. Generally, a crucial issue is whether the benefits are worth the costs. Large-scale projects are often publicly funded, and any policy decision is likely to have winners as well as losers. In this context, it needs to be asked what makes a policy decision rational. This paper starts out by giving some general remarks on rationality and explaining the meaning of the rationality concept in a policy context. It then proceeds to discuss the goal of social welfare and its relation to surplus measures. It is concluded that policy decisions are rational relative to policy goals, which must be accepted to be principles of rational choice (A). For the covering abstract of the conference see ITRD E212343.
Abstract