Transport agencies around the world are facing a shift in their role within society. Traditionally tasked with building and maintaining physical infrastructure—roads, bridges, tunnels, public transport systems—these agencies have been historically evaluated by their technical efficiency: whether they delivered projects on time, within budget, and according to engineering standards. Today, however, transport agencies are increasingly judged by the broader impact they have on citizens’ lives. There is a growing demand that transport agencies should not only deliver infrastructure projects, but also contribute to broader societal goals—equity, sustainability, health, public trust, and quality of life.

With this context in mind, and building on the work of Technical Committee 1.1 Performance of Transport Administrations (TC 1.1) during the last two cycles on Customer Experience (PIARC, 2023 and PIARC, 2019), Working Group 2 of TC 1.1 is tasked with investigating how the principles of public value can be considered by transport administrations as they redefine strategic frameworks to better represent a focus on more holistic societal expectations. Public value is defined as the identification and delivery of activities which benefit society as a whole and key groups within it in multiple economic, social and environmental dimensions. This is distinct from value in the private sector, which is focused primarily on financial benefit for the owners or shareholders of the organisation.

This Literature Review is the first output of the Public Value Creation research. In line with PIARC’s global perspective, the review draws on examples from Australia, Europe, and North America, and includes both academic insights and lessons from policy practice. Working Group 2 is aware that some categories of literature are under-represented or absent, for example there are no sources from Low- and Middlie-Income Countries (LMICs), or research from Central and Latin America, Africa, or Asia. So, while not exhaustive, the goal is to provide a structured foundation for further discussion and refinement, as members of the road and transport infrastructure community seek to better understand their evolving role in shaping and creating public value.

The intention is that the findings of this Review will be combined with evidence from a separate State of Practice Report to produce a secondary evidence base for the research program. This will lay the basis for subsequent primary data collection and analysis, principally from in-depth case studies and a questionnaire survey, leading to policy recommendations and guidance in subsequent stages Public Value Creation research.