The Transport Problems of Inner City Firms: An Approach to Solutions.

The paper arises from a recent investigation into the extent to which transport problems affect manufacturing firms and their employees. It summarises the conclusions of that study and notes their implications for the selection and assessment of transport policies designed to assist industry. One of the conclusions is that most problems are local or site- specific; this suggests that local and probably low cost solutions developed by local authorities or by firms themselves may well be more appropriate than programmes of major investment. However, another conclusion is that firms are generally inadequately aware of the effects of their transport problems and the costs to which they give rise; this suggests that the justification even for low cost solutions may not be being made sufficiently apparent to local authorities. These conclusions indicate the need for a more careful assessment of the effects of both high and low cost transport policies on industry. The paper outlines the way in which an analysis of firms' transport problems may be used to develop appropriate solutions and to assess their effects. It discusses some of the problems of such an investigation, using case studies drawn from recent research in Inner London