ABSTRACT
Transport economics is basically a branch of applied microeconomics. While it uses many standard techniques of economic analysis, it faces a number of special problems and characteristics that justify its consideration as a specific branch of the discipline. The de.mand for transport is a derived one, and each journey is unique in time and space; it cannot be stored or transferred - and from these seemingly simple statements follows a host of implications. The complexities of economic problems involving transport are illustrated by the controversies over supersonic aircraft, the Third London Airport and motorway construction and by the difficulties posed by road congestion, declining public transport, air traffic control and the vagaries of ocean freight rates. Technology, with all its expense and uncertainty, has played a critical role, and it will continue to do so as the depletion of oil necessitates a replacement for conventional motor cars.
