Introduction to the G Project Matthew Page Institute for Transport Studies

Project G Motivation Came from Local Authority concerns about: Appraisal as a barrier to the delivery of sustainable transport schemes Role of appraisal in decision making Particular concerns: –Importance of travel time savings –Appraisal of small schemes and ‘soft’ measures –Distribution of impacts

Findings from the first questionnaire and the first workshop Reinforced the issues we wanted to pursue However, we should: –Reduce emphasis on technical aspects of appraisal –More emphasis on: Looking at how appraisal is used and could be improved Improving appraisal for small schemes and behavioural and attitudinal measures –Work within our budget

Barriers identified 1.Some impacts are not well represented in appraisal 2.We don’t know what the impacts of certain policy instruments are 3.Appraisal/assessment methods for some policy instruments are not well developed 4.Appraisal can be time consuming, onerous and expensive 5.What should the relationship be between appraisal, VfM, and the choice of schemes to deliver policy? 6.The distributional impacts of projects are not easy to represent in appraisal Also: Concern about the accuracy of valuations Philosophical issues about valuation of impacts

Research Issues A.Is it possible to develop an initial/outline appraisal method for earlier use? (from 4) B.Can we develop a simple assessment method for small schemes? (3) C.How could we represent distributional issues in appraisal (6) D.What should be the role of appraisal be in decision making (5)

Research Issue A Product G1 proposed - A method for initial outline appraisal of schemes and strategies: Based on NATA (results comparable) Less onerous data requirements Indicate VfM of a proposal Allow “early warning” Allow appraisal results to feed into decision making

Problems with product G1 Is this genuinely useful to LAs? Will the robustness of the results be open to challenge? What about STAG and the regional prioritisation processes? The product won’t help to address the potential conflict between appraisal/VfM and “policy fit” (or achievement of targets)

Political and practical issues Identified as important by the Steering Group Frequently mentioned by Officers Related to the Policy versus appraisal/VfM debate John Forrester, SEI-Y, going to mention this later

Progress so far Deliverable G1 which summarises much of this –discussion on the relationship between appraisal, VfM and policy Reassessment of the G products: G2 – An assessment method for small schemes G3 – Tools for representing and appraising the distributional impacts of policies G4 – A review of the ways of overcoming the inconsistencies between targets and appraisal

Introduction to today’s speakers Morning - local and regional aspects: David Jones, Nottingham City Council Mike Padgett, Y and H Assembly Afternoon – national perspectives: Hugh Gillies, Transport Scotland Steve Grayson, DfT Update on strategic modelling in DISTILLATE – Tony May

Two Parallel workshops G2 – An assessment method for small schemes G3 – Tools for representing and appraising the distributional impacts of policies Your feedback is important to us –What do you think? –Where should we go from here?

All presentations will be available from the DISTILLATE website: Next DISTILLATE event: Project F workshop on Enhanced Analytical Tools, July 4 th in Leeds