Planning for the maintenance and development of transport is a crucial factor – but optimising the course and shape of plans is impeded by several critical factors.
First is the short term outlook of the politicians at the top of the policy-making process. Their term of control and responsibility for proposals is almost always shorter than the time it takes to implement change and objectively test whether it delivers the improvements that were promised in justifying expenditure of public funds.
The second major impediment to progress is the lack of specialist technical knowledge among politicians and indeed ignorance about the complexities of transport management and development. However, the impact of these factors depends on the extent that a nation allows its politicians to be involved…
A grand plan for the development of Paris was drawn up at the beginning of the nineteenth century and politicians were not allowed to interfere with its implementation during the ensuing decades. The British approach is at the other extreme where all major development plans are subject to a plethora of political interventions. These include grass roots objections by local campaigners who have little interest in the transport needs of the region or nation as a whole. They also include the impact that a particular political figure can have when exceptional circumstances allow them to exert an unusual level of have when they on the direction policy takes.
Prime examples of this in the UK are Barbara Castle, John Prescott and Ken Livingstone…
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