DO EXTERNAL BENEFITS COMPENSATE FOR EXTERNAL COSTS OF TRANSPORT

Positive externalities of transport play a growing role in the politic al discussion. If one concentrates on externalities of infrastructure use it is easy to show that the number and the relevance of positive e xternalities is low. Most of the effects mentioned such as improvement of economic efficiency or development of new consumption/production s tructures are basically not external but normal consumer's or producer 's surpluses induced by market interactions. Therefore, there is no re ason to subtract external benefits from the external cost bills of tra ffic modes which are detrimental to the environment.