Strategic in Theory, Invisible in Practice: Freight Blindness in Transport Planning

Up to a quarter of traffic on the highway system is goods vehicles. Their economic value to the shippers and carriers – and the nation – is huge. Yet the attention freight gets in the transport planning process is inconsistent and incomplete says Ian Brooker. He considers the reasons for this oversight and what should be done about it, looking at how, in major schemes like the A417 Missing Link and Lower Thames Crossing, freight is central to the narrative, but peripheral to the analysis.