Managing the transport needs of major urban areas into the next millennium.

As we approach the end of the current millennium, there is considerable uncertainty, and hence debate, on ways in which transportation problems should be tackled in the urban areas in the United Kingdom. The purpose of this paper is to consider a framework through which such problems can be addressed. The framework is set out in the context of technical, institutional and political dimensions which are seen to represent underlying causes of the transportation problem whose symptom is congestion. The paper draws on a number of ideas and themes and, in the technical area, looks particularly at work currently being undertaken in the West Midlands where integrated transport studies have now been undertaken for all seven districts within the former Metropolitan County.