Integrating politics and transport policy through historical institutionalism

The field of transport policy in academia tends to assume that it is a rational process dedicated to optimising outcomes through cost-benefit analysis. This chapter proposes that this perspective neglects the political, the subjective, the personal and the expedient as major influences on transport policy. These are not desirable pressures, but we should try to better understand them rather than continue to describe an ideal policy world that does not, in fact, exist. Past events, institutionally embedded patterns of behaviour, and social norms are especially influential in framing decision-making. Therefore, this chapter proposes historical institutionalism, hybridity and legitimacy as three precepts through which we can comprehend transport policy as an inherently political process. To illustrate their usage, the chapter provides two brief reviews of the development of London’s transport policies in the eras 1913–33 and 1970–84, explicating the political influences of each period.