Fredrik Pettersson

Soft space regional planning as an approach for integrated transport and land use planning in Sweden – challenges and ways forward

Abstract Current mobility patterns mean that many trips cross one or several municipal borders. This emphasises the need to integrate land-use and transport planning at regional functional scales. However, the Swedish planning system is characterised by a ‘municipal planning monopoly’, where local governments control the formal planning instruments. The lack of formal means for regional-level planning has sparked initiatives that can be characterised as soft spaces in planning. The paper analyses how soft space planning as spatial strategy making at regional level is influencing local-level planning. The analysis covers 10 municipalities in the Swedish Region of Skåne. The results illustrate that the dialogue-based process has established a broad consensus on the need to consider the regional scale in municipal planning. However, the results also show that the impact on planning is limited since the consensus-based process resulted in strategic objectives with limited influence on prevailing planning practices. Findings also illustrate that key concepts for operationalising the strategies – including densification and public transport accessibility – were defined and used differently in different municipalities. Consequently, a more stringent use, and stricter definitions, of core concepts could be a way to strengthen the capacity of soft space regional planning.

E-commerce and urban planning – comparing knowledge claims in research and planning practice

Abstract In planning for a future sustainable transport system, it is important to consider the likely effects of e-commerce. This paper analyses the understanding of impacts of e-commerce on urban planning as expressed in planning practice in a number of Swedish municipalities. Knowledge claims concerning the potential effects of e-commerce are studied through an analysis of planning documents and supplementing interviews. These knowledge claims in planning practice are contrasted with the findings presented and discussed in the research literature. The results indicate that the current understanding of e-commerce in Swedish planning practice is limited and that it is primarily viewed as an opportunity to address transport system issues by reducing passenger transport. However, the overview of the literature shows that e-commerce has so far only had limited effects on prevailing mobility habits and that freight transport has increased in parallel with increased e-commerce. Furthermore, e-commerce challenges city centres as commercial areas. Thus, from a planning perspective e-commerce should not be regarded as an easy solution for an unsustainable transport sector. To harness its potential benefits, there is a need to develop pro-active planning strategies that address the potential impacts of e-commerce.

How to create functioning collaboration in theory and in practice – practical experiences of collaboration when planning public transport systems

Abstract The creation of an efficient public transport system increasingly requires collaboration between independent organizations. Institutional reforms in Europe have created governance situations where collaboration between organizations is a critical issue, and examples include the integration of transport and land-use planning and the planning of large public transport projects. The organizational context of public transport, with several formal, discrete organizations that need to collaborate, raises questions about how functioning collaborations can be accomplished. This paper examines how to create functioning collaboration between organizations in the public transport sector. We depart from a theory of collaboration as a stepwise trust-building process, and we present results from a comparative case study of collaboration in two Swedish public transport projects. The results show some of the prerequisites that must be in place in order for the collaboration to work, but also the boundaries of what collaborative approaches can bring about. Conditions such as honest, open, and inclusive dialog between stakeholders and resources in the form of finance, knowledge, mandate, and leadership are important. While there is no guarantee that this will lead to differences in interests being resolved, the results indicate that it improves the chances of finding compromises that all of the involved stakeholders can accept, especially if favorable conditions for collaboration are established at an early stage of the planning process. Building on these findings, we suggest some practical recommendations for improving collaboration in future public transport projects. These practical recommendations are aimed at improving the handling of unavoidable conflicts in collaboration in a constructive way.