Integrating the Environment, Urban Planning, and Transport: Where Does Economics Fit in?

Abstract

This paper considers the role that economics can play in integrating the environment, urban planning and transportation. The main challenge in moving towards sustainable development is in developing the holistic framework that integrates the environment, economy, and social stability highlighted in the Brundtland Report of 1987. There is a frequent misunderstanding that economics is purely concerned with the market and with prices in markets; e.g. the setting of transit prices and the financial viability of airlines. This has never been the case, and indeed, much of the current debate about the environment can be found, albeit in the context of the knowledge of the time in economic writings from at least the 1920 s or earlier. The paper highlights some of the contributions that economics can make in the particular case of handing environmental matters when concerned with urban planning and transport. Within this framework we are concerned with matters of social equity as well as narrower, and more traditional notions of efficiency. It will make use of a number of case studies to provide illustrations of where economics has proved useful.