Saturday, May 24, 2008

Don't even go there

If anyone is going to have a "long-range" plan, then it must be of the most general sort. Mission statements come to mind. But the idea of long-term plans is silly. It presumes (among other things) that there is such a thing as long-range forecasts and these are probably impossible.

The idea that government agencies ought to have long-range plans or make long-range forecasts only makes it worse. Randal O'Toole documents some of the failures of Long-Range Metropolitan Transportation Planning.