Policy aims - Transport Policy and Planning in Great Britain - page 172

11 Policy aims
Issues, objectives and targets
11.1 Introduction
In the previous chapter we looked at the institutional framework within which public
policy-making takes place. This has evolved in response to changing views about the
role of the State in relation to transport, and its present form reflects contemporary
views on the main purposes to which State activity should be directed.
In this chapter we look more explicitly at the issues with which transport policy
and planning are concerned and how, within this broad range of concerns, objectives
and targets may be set to highlight priorities and steer this activity in the desired
direction. For the moment discussion is confined to the national level. The way in
which national aims are translated into the planning of transport at regional and local
levels is considered in Part 4.
We begin by presenting a comprehensive list of issues which may influence
decision-making, both in the sense of prompting action and in providing a framework
for assessing its potential impacts (11.2). We then consider the role of objectives in
focusing attention on priority issues and the particular objectives which have been
adopted by Central Government (11.3 and 11.4). Within this selected trajectory
targets may be set to focus action still further and to provide a basis for monitoring
achievement of desired outcomes. Again we consider the general role of targets first
and some of their implications before reporting on the particular targets which have
been set for the Department of Transport (11.5 and 11.6).
11.2 Issues
In the context of this topic issues are broad subjects of concern to decision-takers
or groups within the public at large whose condition is open to influence through
interventions in the form or operation of transport systems. Whether an issue will
actually be raised as a matter of concern at a particular place and time will depend
partly on prevailing physical conditions but also on levels of awareness of the issue
generally amongst groups within the population and the importance they place upon
it. One of the main aims of pressure groups is to seek to raise and maintain public
awareness of individual issues (such as road safety or protection of the countryside)
so as to keep them on the 'political agenda' - this then providing a platform on which
campaigns can be mounted for or against particular policies and proposals. (For a
discussion of 'agenda-setting' and its significance see Hill 2005.)
There are many more, and more diverse issues than might first be imagined. There
is no definitive list. Indeed the range of issues commanding public attention (such as