Planeringsfrågan väg till hållplats - i relation till statlig policy och råd för en hållbar transportutveckling i städer

Doktorsavhandling, 2009

International and governmental policy emphasizes public transportation for a sustainable future in cities. According to the Swedish Door-To-Door Policy project pathways to transit stops are important parts of public transportation, for many groups of users (in this study also called a Whole-Travel-Perspective). The need for (i) better coordination between housing development and public transportation, (ii) better understanding of conflicting goals, (iii) a comprehensive view of the city and (iv) improvements of development programs have also been put forward. Previous research focuses on neighbourhoods, local policies and planning tools for reaching sustainable transportation. In Gothenburg local planners have considered a tool for pathways to transit stops. This thesis therefore searches for a proposal for a complementary tool for this part of public transportation. An analysis of existing local planning tools regarding pathways to transit stops shows a fragmented planning field, with different knowledge traditions. Better coordination and understanding of conflicting goals seems to be of importance. TOD-planning (Transit-Oriented- Development) research points out such a direction for an analytical standpoint and a conceptual tool. The tension between the two concepts, place and node, plays a central role for understanding conflicts between different priorities. Finally, a proposal for a conceptual tool is constructed also with inspiration from quality research in the industrial management field, using five perspectives for the quality concept for understanding tensions between different academic frameworks. It is underpinned by an understanding of different planning strategies deriving from different paradigms. The proposal for using five quality perspectives is also combined with the ideas of learning loops. The proposal, called a Quality Palette, concerns (i) a comprehensive understanding of five urban quality perspectives with tensions in between, (ii) for lifting up conflicting quality goals making sense for a more analytical approach, (iii) when striving for a more critical and trans-disciplinary holistic standpoint, (iv) already early in the planning process. A tentative field study in a neighbourhood illustrates how the proposal can be used, in this case for analyses of the quality of pathways to transit stops. Title in Swedish: Planeringsfrågan väg till hållplats – i relation till statlig policy och råd för en hållbar transportutveckling i städer. Language: Swedish with an English Summary.