Why reliability and vulnerability should be an issue in road development projects

Few will question that the sender, the recipient, the freight hauler or society in general, experience additional costs when goods or persons cannot reach their destinations in time or space. Consequently, it should be obvious that a reliable transportation network represents a benefit to society. Equally, a vulnerable network would represent a net cost to society. Why then, is the reliability, or conversely, the vulnerability, of the transportation network not a matter of evaluation in traditional cost-benefit analyses?

This is an English translation of an article that was first published in Norwegian in "Samferdsel", issue 4/2004:

Husdal, J. (2004). Pålitelighet og sårbarhet - et ikke-tema i nyttekostanalyser? Samferdsel 2/2004, s. 28-30. Reliability and vulnerability - a non-issue in cost-benefit analyses? Samferdsel (Journal of the Norwegian Institute for Transport Economics, TØI), 2/2004, pp. 28-30.