22 MAR 2012 (THU) | 19:00 - 20:00
Rayson Huang Theatre, The University of Hong Kong.
Speakers:
Professor David Banister Professor of Transport Studies University of Oxford
David Banister is Professor of Transport Studies at Oxford University and Director of the Transport Studies Unit. Until 2006, he was Professor of Transport Planning at University College London. He has also been Research Fellow at the Warren Centre in the University of Sydney (2001-2002) on the Sustainable Transport for a Sustainable City project, was Visiting VSB Professor at the Tinbergen Institute in Amsterdam (1994-1997), Visiting Professor at the University of Bodenkultur in Vienna in 2007, and is the first holder of the BIVEC-GIBET Transport Chair in Benelux (2012-2013). He was Acting Director of the Environmental Change Institute at Oxford University for two years (2009-2010). He has authored and edited 19 books, and has published over 250 papers in refereed journals and as book chapters. His research interests are in transport, cities and the environment, in future studies, and in the means by which the transport system can substantially reduce its energy requirements and its carbon emissions.
Abstract:
There is at least a popular belief that major transport infrastructure projects give rise to benefits which are not captured in conventional investment appraisal. The building of a metro network, a major airport or a high speed rail line will have ramifications which go beyond the simple measurement of time savings or reductions in accidents. However, substantiating the idea with a methodology which is both theoretically sound and empirically applicable has proved challenging. Approaches have been refined in recent years and the empirical evidence has become more robust and convincing, showing that any such impacts need not always be beneficial. However, the adoption of formal measures of such impacts in official appraisal procedures has been much less widely implemented leaving decisions on major transport investments open to less scientific arguments for and against. This presentation will review the arguments for consideration of wider impacts and their treatment. It concludes with recommendations for the development of transparent procedures to ensure consistent treatment of such impacts.
Organizers:
Institute of Transport Studies, HKU (ITS)