ECONOMIC CHANGE, TRANSPORT APPRAISAL AND RURAL AREAS

Rural dwellers and businesses trade the higher levels of accessibility they could experience in urban areas for other benefits of rural living. Sustaining rural economies therefore depends on a successful balance being achieved between transport and other advantages. Yet economic change and policy intervention often do not provide the mechanisms for all the partners in rural economies to work together to deliver better solutions, and balance the needs of all stakeholders. Transport appraisal tends to be isolated from community planning processes so this paper discusses how new approaches to accessibility planning can help to make the connections between these. 1