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Addressing the sustainability of transportation systems is an important activity as evidenced by a growing number of initiatives around the world to define and measure sustainability in transportation planning and infrastructure provision. This paper reviews major initiatives in North America, Europe, and Oceania. The purpose is to characterize the emergent thinking on what constitutes transportation sustainability and how to measure it. While there is no standard definition for transportation system sustainability, it is largely being defined through impacts of the system on the economy, environment, and general social well-being; and measured by system effectiveness and efficiency, and the impacts of the system on the natural environment. Frameworks based on important causal relationships between infrastructure and the broader environment, infrastructure impacts on the economy, environment, and social well-being; and the relative influence of agencies over causal factors, are largely being used to develop and determine indicator systems for measuring sustainability in transportation systems. Process-based approaches involve community representatives and other stakeholders in planning and present opportunities to educate the public and influence collective behaviors. These frameworks can be used collectively to help agencies refine their visions as well as develop policies, planning procedures, and measurement and monitoring systems for achieving sustainable transportation systems.

Literary sources regarding public—private partnerships (PPPs) often mention the importance of conducting a value for money (VfM) analysis to determine the value of pursuing a project through a PPP versus a traditional procurement; however, few sources detail how agencies actually use this analysis in practice. This article provides a state-of-the-practice review of VfM analysis using examples from Australia, Canada, Europe, Africa, and Asia, focusing particularly on the VfM model used by agencies such as Partnerships Victoria, The United Kingdom's Her Majesty Treasury Department, and Partnerships British Columbia. Despite its growing applications in PPP projects from all different sectors, VfM has faced significant criticisms from academics and practitioners. This article evaluates reviews of VfM, noting the weaknesses and strengths of the methodology. Using the information derived from the evaluation, this article provides a guided reference for public agencies looking to adopt this VfM methodology in their current PPP decision-making framework.

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