The Economy Objective is concerned with improving the economic efficiency of transport. The Economy Objective was developed from the principles of A New Deal for Transport (DETR, 1998), the Government’s White Paper on transport. Congestion and unreliability of journeys add to the costs of business, undermining competitiveness particularly in our towns and cities where traffic is worst. The cost to the British economy is estimated to run into billions of pounds every year and is rising.
The Economy Objective has 5 sub-objectives:
- to get good value for money in relation to impacts on public accounts
- to improve transport economic efficiency for business users and transport providers
- to improve transport economic efficiency for consumer users
- to improve reliability
- to provide beneficial wider economic impacts
Appraising against the Economy Objective involves cost-benefit analysis, where the benefits of a scheme are balanced against its costs; and the calculation of the costs includes an assessment of impacts of a scheme on pedestrians, cyclists and other road users; with a monetary value applied to these impacts.