ADAPTABILITY AND FLEXIBILITY IN URBAN-TRANSPORTATION POLICY AND PLANNING

The poor representation of uncertainty in the urban transportation planning process can lead to excessively large and permanent facilities. Such inflexible facilities and systems may condition and severely constrain options available to future generations for organizing the production, consumption, and distribution of goods and services. The relationship between facility size and permanence and flexibility has received too little recognition in practice and too little attention in research. This paper calls for increased research to provide policy makers and practitioners with a greater understanding of the consequences of the present approach and the advantages and disadvantages of more flexible approaches.