Symposium on Transport and Particular Populations

Abstract

First paragraph: Transport infrastructure is the lead example of a public good in academic and policy discourse. This perspective on transport sets the framework for analyzing the contribution of transport to individual and social wellbeing. The discussion of free riding, congestion costs, pricing, public finance for transport, etc., all flow from transport as a public good, whose benefits are, to varying degrees depending on the technological, social and institutional context, non-rival and non-excludable. However, useful as this is as an organizing frame, there is a tendency in the academic and policy literature to treat the populations served by transport as being homogeneous. The distributional consequences of transport interventions tend to receive less attention than the overall estimates of benefits and costs.