Ten concepts of equity or justice are identified which might be applied in transport policy. A detailed examination of legislation and related debates in the United Kingdom reveals that most transport debate has been concentrated on issues of formal equality, particularly in relation to the burden of costs, and the meeting of basic needs in relation to transport provision. Equity considerations have become more prominent in transport policy over the period studied.

A study is reported of equity concepts held by local transport policymakers (planners and politicians) in sixteen local authorities in England. The study demonstrates that at this level the concepts most readily identified are those of formal equality and basic need. Differences between politicians and professionals and between two main political parties are found to be small. The results are compared with those of a similar study at national level. IntroductionThe main objectives of this paper are to establish the extent to which equity, fairness, and justice (EFJ) concepts are recognised by transport policymakers at local authority level in England. There is ample evidence that academics and transport pressure groups are both increasingly using the language of equity, fairness, and justice as a means to examine a wide range of social and distributional issues in transport policy (for example, Altshuler