What the Regional Transport Infrastructure Indicators Can and Cannot Tell Us

This paper proposes a taxonomy of the main regional transport infrastructure indicators available in Italy and discusses the principal merits and limitations of each of them. The indexes show scant correlation and may offer contrasting data on the infrastructure endowment of a given area. As a result, there is no index to favour above the others; rather, different indicators satisfy different fact-finding purposes. We conclude that it is not only desirable to have more and better indexes, but also that it is necessary to choose the indicator only after rigorous identification of the data sought.