Assessing barriers to sustainable UK urban transport solutions

Abstract

Local authorities in the UK play an active role in ensuring the smooth design and implementation of sustainable transport policy. This paper summarises the findings of a questionnaire survey carried out in 16 local transport authorities, covering the organisational, technical and external challenges faced in the delivery of local transport strategies and schemes. It prioritises the key barriers in the use of decision support tools (i.e. indicators, option generation tools, appraisal techniques, and modelling) and discusses some of the funding challenges which affect the delivery of transport strategies and schemes. The outputs of this research will directly influence the development, practice and use of tools aimed at overcoming these barriers in selected urban transport authorities. This will also strengthen the research evidence base for the implementation of transport policy at a local level in the UK.