There are nine Regional Development Agencies (RDAs) in England, UK which have responsibility for economic development, business investment, employment, skills and sustainable development. They are tasked by the UK Government to develop and deliver Regional Economic Strategies. Advantage West Midlands (AWM), the RDA for the West Midlands region, commissioned Mott MacDonald, in association with GVA Grimley, to investigate and provide a strategic overview of the capacity of the region's transport networks to support economic development projects and highlight any major areas of concern arising from future proposals. The study involved identifying the proposed major employment development projects in the West Midlands (WM), assessingtheir spatial location and composition and considering the deliverabilityand phasing of each development site. The processed employment information was fed through PRISM, the West Midlands strategic transport model (www.prism-wm.com), in order to provide a detailed analysis of the impact upon the travel demand, the region's transport network and its capacity. The key elements of this study cover: spatial assessment of the development sites; phasing and deliverability of the key employment sites; compatibility of the development forecasts of employment growth with national forecasts for the WM region; impacts of the developments on the forecasted transport capacity in the WM region with a focus on the impacts on the most congested parts of the WM road network; measures to tackle the key bottlenecks in transport network are also considered as part of the transport strategy development process. Based on the findings of this study, a number of recommendations of the ways in which to ease congestion and maximise capacity ofthe network in the West Midlands are suggested. Some general lessons about the inter-relations of transport, employment development, housing and demographic trends on economically and socially disadvantaged areas within the region are identified. Possible short and long term alleviation measures are also discussed. For the covering abstract see ITRD E145999
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