ABSTRACT
Government involvement in transport planning is conducted on several tiers. Car ownership forecasts are an important input into the technical case for new trunk road and motorway schemes. In England and Wales, outside London, local transport planning and co-ordination is largely the responsibility of six metropolitan counties and a greater number of “shire” counties. County councils consider transport planning matters on both long term and shorter term bases. Lancashire County Council has been responsible for work on two plans, the North East Lancashire Structure Plan and the Central and North Lancashire Structure Plan (in preparation). Studies in Teesside highlight, once again, the problems associated with the application of empirically derived national models disaggregated to county level. This brief examination of techniques used at county level has exposed a wide variation in methods and philosophy on the part of transport planners.
