The purpose of this paper is to raise the types of questions which should be considered in evaluating a potential public transporation investment in a mature urban area, when justification for public investments includes their implication for economic development. The policy issues or implications for are drown from recent experience in the United States where beneficial economic development impacts have been cited frequently as a justification for major public investments in urban mass transit projects. To this extent, the ussues raised and the policy context which is used to illustrate the possibility of misleading evaluation is unique to a mature and urbanized society: nonetheless, opportunities for generilization exist. By raising the specific questions which can guide the evaluation of transit investments in the United States, within the specific policy context of that country's economic and development objectives, it may be possible to illuminate both the types of evaluation measures and the types of supporting policies which may be necessary elsewhere to formulate transportation investments which reinforce desired economic development consequences of transportation investments. This paper describes the policy context in which transportation are made, a context in which suggest the importance of economic and development impacts in the decision - making process. It then formulates an analytic framework and a series of policy questions which define the extent of the contribution economic and development impact analyses can make to the choice among alternative transportation investments. To avoid any false expectations, the empirical evidence relative to these effects is discussed with special attention to the role of policies intended to reinforce or redirect economic behaviour in desired ways. (A)
Abstract