ABSTRACT
A key aspect of any public policy on urban freight is the power of government to provide and maintain capital infrastructure. The urban road development program for the 1990s is largely directed towards roads which will benefit the regional economy; this primarily involves circumferential roads linking key industrial areas, and other roads connecting these areas to the port and airport. From the viewpoint of planning and policy in relation to urban freight, the key question is whether existing project appraisal techniques suitably reflect the benefits and costs of freight-related impacts of candidate projects. The state of the art in urban road investment appraisal, whether in terms of economic impacts or environmental impacts, is extremely crude. The size and location of freight terminals has a significant influence on the magnitude and orientation of urban truck movements but it is almost certainly true to say that this factor has little influence in road investment decisions.
