Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Figure 2.21 2001: A Space Odyssey , 1968, written by Arthur C. Clarke, directed by Stanley Kubrick. Elena
and her colleague Dr Smyslov ask Floyd about 'odd things' occurring at Clavius Base (a US
outpost on the moon), and the rumour of a mysterious epidemic at the base. The American
declines to answer any questions about the epidemic.
Hal : I've just picked up a fault in the AE35 unit. It's going to go 100 per cent failure in
72 hours.
Source : British Film Institute Stills Collection.
left to decision-makers, and this is seen as having limited legitimacy (Sayers et al., 2003); 'a
waste of public funds and clearly irrational decisions' have occurred, and it becomes difficult
to determine why options are taken forward (Quinet, 2000). The methods for appraisal, across
different transport modes and timescales, clearly need a major rethink, but careful application
of MCA provides one very useful approach.
Many countries are now using a mix of CBA and MCA in project appraisal, but the practice
differs markedly. The UK and USA, for example, have a heavy reliance on 'economic'
approaches (CBA, with importance given to time savings), whilst Germany is more concerned
with 'technical' solutions (how systems are designed and engineered, and well integrated),
and in France 'image' becomes much more important (such as found in 'Les Grand Projets',
including high-speed rail and a series of tram schemes in cities, which seek to compete against
each other in terms of quality of the city fabric and urban life) (Hall and Falk, 2013).
Conclusions
Ideally, when planning city and transport futures it would be desirable to be blessed with the
foresight of Borges' Yahoos; 5
this would certainly simplify the difficult process of transport
 
Search WWH ::




Custom Search