Transport Project Evaluation: Extending the Social Cost–Benefit Approach, Elvira Haezendonck (Ed.). Edward Elgar Publishing (2007). Price £65.00, ISBN: 978 1 84720 379 3 In the ‘‘good old days,” transportation project evaluation was relatively simple, it simply examined whether a particular infra- structure project (a road, bridge, rail line, port or airport) is likely to repay its investment costs through some combination of savings in travel time, vehicle operating expenses and accident reductions. But this approach is increasingly criticized for ignoring other im- pacts (particularly external costs of transportation facilities and the traffic it induces), objectives (such as a desire to coordinate transportation and land use planning, or achieve equity objectives) and options (alternative modes and demand management strategies). The book, Transport Project Evaluation: Extending the Social Cost– Benefit Approach (Elvira Haezendonck, Ed., Edward Elgar Publish- ing, 2007) is a collection of papers by approximately two dozen European experts struggling with these issues. It reflects both good and bad news. The good news is that there is growing appreciation of the inad- equacies of existing transport project evaluation. The bad news is that there is no clear agreement over which inadequacies are most important and how they should be corrected. The book’s papers advocate various incremental improvements to existing economic evaluation models, such as adding a few more quantitative impacts to benefit/cost analysis to better measure the societal effects of a project, and incorporating more public input in the planning pro- cess. The use of various computer models is also mentioned. The book includes four chapters which describe case studies of major transportation project evaluations, examining their strengths and weaknesses. All examples and case studies are from Northern Europe. A major theme through the book concerns whether purely quan- titative evaluation methods, in which all impacts are monetized, is adequate, or whether some form of qualitative evaluation, such as multi-criteria evaluation, is needed. The book editors conclude that transport project evaluation is evolving toward integrated systems approaches that include both quantitative and qualitative analysis methods. This is a useful conclusion; it shows the general direction for further research and planning process development, but is by no means new. The general tone of the book is that project evaluation should incorporate as much reform as needed in response to exter- nal forces, but the authors generally express little delight in the prospect of more comprehensive and integrated analysis. For example, in the discussion of stakeholder involvement, the authors suggest that stakeholders be only included after development plans or alternatives have been drafted to avoid ‘‘unrealistic alternatives” and lengthy processes. Stakeholders may be involved in the devel- opment of the evaluation criteria and weighting factors, but the ‘‘scientific team” would conduct the actual evaluation. This is a rather conservative view that is more concerned about the speed at which projects can be implemented than the true participation of stakeholders in a planning process. It also sets up a power differ- ential between the analysts and the stakeholders, as well as disen- franchises the latter group. The general tone of the book can also be described as practical and pragmatic, as opposed to one that is particularly sensitive to environmental and human welfare. Throughout the papers the authors explain that it is increasingly common for environmental and social impacts to be included in transport project evaluations as there is a public demand for it. There is, however, little explora- tion of the reasons behind this demand, such as the significant environmental damage caused by transportation and the societal inequities that exist with regards to mobility and accessibility. This discussion would have made the argument to address environ- mental and social impacts in transportation evaluations more compelling and well-rounded. Each of the papers reflects a unique perspective of the problems with current practices and potential solutions to these problems. Like any collection of papers, a reader is likely to find some inter- esting and useful, and others less so. The book lacks a comprehen- sive summary and analysis of the omissions and solutions identified in these papers. It would have been very useful to in- clude a list or table of current planning omissions and how they can be addressed. It would also have been useful to include explicit discussion of methods for evaluating multiple modes and demand management strategies, for example, how to determine whether to invest in roads or railroads, or instead apply pricing reforms and other management strategies to address traffic congestion on a particular corridor. Readers would also benefit from a more thor- ough discussion of the non-market and indirect social and environ- mental criteria that should be included in an evaluation, as well as the methods that are being used by the various Northern European countries to measure these impacts. The book’s authors generally appear to be advocates for mobil- ity and therefore for expanded transportation infrastructure, frus- trated with the increasing regulatory burdens and restrictions on transportation project planning. There is no discussion of demand management as an alternative to facility expansion or of least-cost planning (the concept of applying demand management when it is more cost effective overall than capacity expansion, taking into ac- count all impacts). Instead, there is a focus on the technical improvements to the evaluation and decision-making process. This book should be of interest to specialized planners and economists involved in transport project evaluations who want a current report on how their colleagues are improving current prac- tices and are willing to wade through various papers. People inter- ested in these issues will surely find many interesting bits of information. It is suitable for a graduate studies seminar that fo- cuses on these issues. However, it provides little guidance concern- ing which problems are most severe and which solutions are most appropriate, and would therefore be of little use to most transport planning practitioners and undergraduate students. Todd Alexander Litman Victoria Transport Policy Institute, 1250 Rudlin Street, Victoria, BC, V8V 3R7, Canada Tel./fax: +250 360 1560 E-mail address: litman@vtpi.org Iona To School of Community & Regional Planning, University of British Columbia, #433-6333 Memorial Road, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z2 doi:10.1016/j.jtrangeo.2009.06.004 Research in Transportation Economics. Vol. 21 – Maritime Transport: the Greek Paradigm, A.A. Pallis (Ed.). Elsevier (2007). £55.09, ISBN: 978-0-7623-1499-2 A number of opportunities have arisen worldwide which have significantly altered the maritime scene both locally and globally. In this case, Greece is no exception, of which shipping is arguably Book reviews / Journal of Transport Geography 18 (2010) 191–194 193