This is a fansite for the Transport Analysis Guidance Website – WebTAG

The Department for Transport originally initiated the information found on this website to provide detailed guidance on the appraisal of transport projects and wider advice on scoping and carrying out transport studies.

More specifically, this is the place where you can find the Department for Transport’s information for the guidance on the conduct of transport studies. The guidance includes or provides links to advice on how to:

• set objectives and identify problems;
• develop potential solutions;
• create a transport model for the appraisal of the alternative solutions;
• and how to conduct an appraisal which meets the Department’s requirements.

The website also includes advice on the modelling and appraisal appropriate for major highway and public transport schemes.

The guidance should be seen as a requirement for all projects/studies that require government approval. For projects/studies that do not require government approval TAG should serve as a best practice guide.

The site originally brought together the Department’s existing documents, The Guidance on the Methodology for Multi-Modal Studies (GOMMMS) and associated supplements and errata, Applying the Multi-Modal Approach to Appraisal to Highway Schemes (The Bridging Document) and Major Scheme Appraisal in Local Transport Plans.

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.

Following the Government’s Integrated Transport White Paper and Roads Review, the New Approach To Appraisal has been adopted for the appraisal of all major highway projects. The appraisal methodology was first set out in the Guidance on the Methodology of Multi-Modal Studies (GOMMMS) and is now fully incorporated into Transport Analysis Guidance (TAG). It is necessary to move highway appraisal onto this methodology to maintain consistency with the Multi-Modal Studies and with the appraisal of other modes.

Prior to the adoption of the New Approach To Appraisal, the definitive guide to environmental assessment of highway schemes has been the Design Manual for Roads and Bridges Volume 11. While this guidance remains current, it now needs to be applied in a manner consistent with the New Approach To Appraisal as set out in TAG.

The link between GOMMMS and DMRB was provided by Applying the Multi-modal New Approach to Appraisal to Highway Schemes (“The Bridging Document“). The Bridging Document was written to enable those carrying out highway project appraisal to interpret the multi-modal, study-based, appraisal advice in GOMMMS. It provides the guidance needed to ensure that the appraisal of highway economy and safety impacts is in line with the approach set out in GOMMMS. It also provides advice on the need for a change in the approach to scheme design and development, to reflect the need for a balanced improvement across all five objectives, rather than the maximisation of transport economic efficiency and safety.

The Environment Objective aims to protect the built and natural environment. This includes reducing the direct and indirect impacts of transport facilities and their use on the environment of both users and non-users. The environment impacts of concern include noise, atmospheric pollution of differing kinds, vibration, formal intrusion, severance, and impacts on the countryside and wildlife, ancient monuments and historic buildings and so on. While some of these can be readily quantified, others such as severance are much more difficult to define and analyse. More recently, the Environment Objective has been defined more widely to include reduction of the impact of transport on the global environment, particularly through emission of carbon dioxide, but also by consumption of scarce and non-renewable resources.

The Environment Objective has 10 sub-objectives that reflect the various impacts of concern:

• to reduce noise
• to improve local air quality
• to reduce greenhouse gases
• to protect and enhance the landscape
• to protect and enhance the townscape
• to protect the heritage of historic resources
• to support biodiversity
• to protect the water environment
• to encourage physical fitness
• to improve journey ambience