Once the situation in the study area has been examined, problems and opportunities identified and Transport Planning Objectives set, the next step is to start developing options which will achieve the desired transport outcomes.
The most common way of generating or defining options for analysis is to assess solely how the problem being confronted can be ameliorated or eliminated. In more simple applications this might be seen as acceptable, but even so, this should be done in the context of the Transport Planning Objectives set for the work. The Transport Planning Objectives may (and will in larger scale studies) encompass a range of matters over and above merely solving the problem which gave rise to the analysis in the first place.
The generation of options can only be considered to be all-embracing if an objective-based approach is followed. That is, explicit consideration is given to deriving options with the intent of meeting the Transport Planning Objectives, rather than investigating how extant options with some history may contribute.
In general terms, options should be generated through the following sources:
The range of policy instruments available to the practitioner include but need not be limited to:
The extensive list of more specific policy instruments found under these headings provides a useful starting point. It provides a checklist of the range of specific policy instruments that are likely to be relevant to different studies and indicates the types of objectives they can help contribute to.
Where appropriate, practitioners should investigate the possibility of packaging measures in order to achieve the desired transport outcomes. It is possible that no one measure on its own is likely to provide a solution to the transport problems within a study area.
Packaging measures effectively can:
It is important to recognise cumulative impacts which may arise from the packaging of measures. This should be accounted for fully during analysis.
