Exploring Swedish urban freight stakeholders’ interests in public spaces

Journal article, 2023

Urban stakeholders have divergent interests in the use of public space in cities and should be considered in city-planning of urban freight. This paper explores Swedish urban stakeholder’s interests in the use of public space. A literature review on Urban Freight Stakeholders (UFSs) with direct impact on city-planning, and their interest’ in the use of public space was conducted and used as a theoretical foundation in a cross-case analysis of two Swedish cities. Forty-five semi-structured interviews, and forty-one answers from a multiple-choice question were used as empirical data in the evaluation of UFSs’ interests. The paper shows that interests’ of UFSs which contribute to attractive urban environment should be considered in city-planning of urban freight. In addition, policies on road safety, decoration of the city environment and pricing the use of public space in cities need to be developed at local authorities. The paper confirms property owners as UFSs with similar accessibility and service interests as local authorities in the city-planning of urban freight. The literature review of published research and a cross-case analysis of Swedish UFSs’ interests in public space in two cities provides insights for further development of research to enrich theory and city-planning of urban freight.