ABSTRACT
Transport appraisal' refers to a set of methods that are underpinned by economics and are widely used by governments and public bodies to support transport sector decision making. This chapter introduces the basic problem of resource allocation in the transport sector. It describes the underlying economic principles, and how appraisal has evolved to this point through research, debate and application- this includes the need for valuation of impacts as part of an economic appraisal. The chapter outlines how the valuation of impacts is undertaken, including values of travel time savings, safety, environmental impacts, health impacts and wider economic impacts beyond the transport sector. It shows how this feeds through into the appraisal results and how they are used; and also addresses some remaining limitations and widens the scope to discuss multiple attribute-based methods and their role in the transport decision maker's toolkit.
