This paper examines how complexity at the land use and transport (LUT) interface can be handled in practice, empirically focusing on a planning activity in Swedish national transport planning, so called Strategic Choice of Measures (SCM). Viewing LUT coordination as a question of handling complexity along two dimensions, one relating to the substantial issues of the problem, the other to the actors involved, the relation between open and focused approaches to delimitation of scope and the participation of actors are analysed in three SCM case studies. The study highlights two necessary but potentially contradicting conditions for LUT coordination. On the one hand, the complexity of problems at the LUT interface requires a comprehensive perspective and a diverse set of participants to enable a sufficiently wide framing of these problems. On the other hand, strategically rational actors will demand an approach which maintains a high degree of relevance for their particular interests, and the process therefore requires a focus on selected issues. The paper concludes that handling complexity at the LUT interface requires an acknowledgement of the need for both approaches, arguing that LUT coordination is benefitted by seeing openness and focusing as complementary rather than contradictory approaches in planning situations. 

Research on sustainability and transport has paid increasing attention to how the purpose of the transport system is framed, often arguing that there is a need to shift the focus of transport planning and policy from the physical infrastructure to mobility and accessibility. Sweden's national transport policy also has elements of this shift, most noticeable in the so-called four step principle, where the possibility to affect the need for transport and choice of transport mode (step 1) and the possibility to use existing infrastructure more efficiently (step 2) should be considered before large reconstructions (step 3) or new infrastructure (step 4) is chosen as the solution to transport related problems. The aim of this article is to study whether the practical implications of Swedish national transport policy are consistent with the ambitions expressed in the four step principle, with particular focus on the Swedish Transport Administration's (STA) mandate to finance different measures. Based on an analysis of policy documents and semi-structured interviews the main finding of the analysis is that many step 1 and 2 measures do not fall within the financial mandate of the STA. The implementation of the four step principle therefore depends on the commitment among other actors than the STA to implement step 1 and 2 measures. Furthermore, it is concluded that the limits to the STA mandate has consequences for the ability of the STA to engage in collaboration with the actors on which it depends, and that strengthening the STA's mandate to finance a desired function rather than physical infrastructure is likely to increase commitment among other stakeholders to work with these measures. Such a step would imply a different regulatory framework than the current, more in line with ”the sustainable mobility paradigm” (Banister 2008) and could contribute to a good accessibility to different amenities at the same time as negative environmental impacts are reduced.

In 2013, a new preparatory study was established in the Swedish national transport planning process: Strategic Choice of Measures (SCM). It constitutes an arena for early dialogue between main actors and stakeholders at local, regional and national level to jointly assess transport related problems and develop solutions. This paper explores the collaborative elements of this planning method, analysing the extent to which the introduction of SCM implies fundamental steps towards a planning approach based on communicative rationality in Swedish national transport planning. The article departs from the government's recognition of the need for more and deeper collaboration between actors, new approaches and measures for transport problem, and increasing attention to demand management and modal shift to meet transport policy goals more efficiently, asking whether SCM makes national transport planning in Sweden more collaborative, in the sense of primarily relying on communicative rationality. The focus of the analysis lies on collaborative elements in the official SCM guidelines produced by the Swedish Transport Administration (STA) as an expression of an “ideal” SCM process, and a case study of an SCM process considered by the STA to be a good example of SCM in practice. The article concludes that although traces of communicative rationality are visible in both “ideal” and in practice, a more fundamental shift from instrumental to communicative rationality in Swedish national transport planning through the introduction of SCM has not occurred, since collaborative practices of SCM mainly are framed in a wider institutional framework of instrumental rationality. 

Following a reformation of the Swedish national transport planning system in 2013, Strategic Choice of Measures (SCM) was introduced by the Swedish Transport Administration as a new preparatory study prior to formal decisions on measures to solve transport related problems. SCM is a dialogue based informal planning process carried out at the early stages of the national transport planning process, with the aim to identify solutions in close cooperation between key actors and stakeholders, based on a multimodal approach and the so called four step principle. According to the four step principle, solutions to transport related problems should be developed and assessed stepwise, where measures that influence the demand for transport and choice of transport mode (step 1) and make use of existing infrastructure more efficiently (step 2) are considered before minor reconstruction (step 3) and the construction of new infrastructure (step 4). As a new planning step, SCM has been fully established on the national transport planning scene, and around 1000 SCM’s have been conducted over the last five years.

This study is initiated and commissioned by the Swedish Transport Administration with the purpose to investigate values, or benefits, created through SCM. Two questions have guided the inquiry:

• What types of benefits does SCM create?
• How is the creation of benefits through SCM related to different underlying conditions?

The study is conducted within a theoretical framework of three different types of planning – communicative, strategic and classic rational planning – and the conceptual distinction between wicked and tame problems. As a theoretical framework for analysis it is recognized that the three types of planning are associated with different aims and relate differently to wicked and tame problems. While a communicative planning process is concerned with a consensual understanding of the wickedness of problems, a strategic planning process is action oriented and concerned with taming wicked problems to make them manageable, and a classic rational planning process involves the search for optimal solutions to given ends, treating problems as tame. SCM is seen as a hybrid of the three types of planning and therefore potentially associated with different kinds of benefits. The empirical section of the inquiry consists of two parts. The main part is five case studies of ongoing and completed SCM processes. This qualitative section has been supplemented with a quantitative overview of the aggregated mass of completed SCM’s since 2013.

The study concludes that the hybrid idea of SCM, as described in steering and guiding documents is more nuanced in practice. The extent and presence of the three planning types differ from case to case. Some of the cases display signs of a communicative process to develop a shared understanding of the problems at stake among a diverse set of actors. All cases provide clear examples of strategic framing and taming processes through focusing on selected issues and the interests of interdependent key actors. The optimization ideal of the classic rational planning approach is reflected in ambitions to find the best possible solutions, but the results of the processes appear to be derived from consensus among key actors on the suitability of certain courses of action rather than objectively decided criteria for comparison of efficiency and benefits of alternative solutions.

Throughout these processes we find that the values and benefits from an SCM process could best be described in terms of a strategic planning process, with an emphasis on coordination, performance, and action – often concerned with measures that have been considered previously but not in the kind of shared planning contexts illuminated by the SCM process. It is therefore as a strategic planning method we see the clearest benefits with SCM. We also find that SCM has the potential to be more fully used as a communicative planning method to develop more multifaceted understandings of transport related problems in specific situations, at certain windows of opportunities if the STA has such an ambition.

This article focuses on the coordination of national infrastructure planning and municipal urban planning in Sweden. A case study of a current planning project, where a planned high speed railway meets the centre of a medium sized city, serves as a basis for a discussion about the commitment of the main parties to cooperate for a coordinated planning. The study reveals a gap in terms of the commitment signalled to joint efforts, and thus also the expectations of their respective counterpart. Depending on the definition of commitment, both parties can be seen as highly committed, but while the railway agency has its commitment oriented primarily towards the transport system as such, i.e. the content of the cooperation, the concern of the municipality is more about commitment to the continuity of the cooperative efforts, i.e. the process of cooperating. The paper concludes by pointing at some wider implications of the analysis. In particular, the lack of a coherent spatial perspective in the national planning system, and the prospects for institutional conditions for coordination to be made more explicit, are discussed.

Rapporten belyser vad aktuell kunskap säger om hur man kan förstå betydelsen av städers täthet och funktionsblandning samt den regionala strukturen och transportstrukturens omfattning och utformning för samhällets transportmönster, med särskilt fokus på persontransporter.

Avgörande för att minska behoven av motoriserade transporter (biltresor) inom städer är att tillgängligheten till stadens olika funktioner (målpunkter) är bättre med gång- och cykel- och kollektivtrafik än med bil.

För att bedöma lämpliga förändringar i en viss stad behövs både ett lokalt och ett regionalt perspektiv. Det behövs en förståelse för hur transportsystemet fungerar och dess sårbarhet, kapacitetsproblem, etc. liksom hur befintliga och nya bebyggelsemiljöer kan bidra till förutsättningarna för gång-, cykel-, och kollektivtrafik.

The report highlights what recent research findings and other sources of knowledge say about the importance of urban density, mixed functions, regional structure and the scope and design of transport infrastructure, for the transportation patterns of society, with particular focus on passenger transport.

Essential to reducing the need for motorized transport (car travel) in cities is that accessibility to various functions and destinations in the city is better by walking, cycling and public transport than by car.

An assessment of proposed measures for physical changes in a particular city requires an in depth understanding of how the transport system functions and its vulnerability, capacity problems, etc., as well as how existing and new built environments can contribute to conditions for walking, cycling and public transport, in each particular context.

Many public authorities in the planning field have brought the challenge of coordination between land use and transportation planning to the top of the current Swedish planning agenda. However, in planning theory, the issue of cross-sectoral integration is not as central as among planning practitioners. This paper examines a recent planning project in Sweden, highlighting the problem of orienting the transformation of a street space around a general strategy expressed in a comprehensive plan. The aim is to deepen the understanding of the conditions for integration of land use planning and transportation planning, by focusing on the relationship between plans and planning processes.

While communicative planning theories often address the problem of how to bridge differences in perspectives, this paper focuses on the processes through which such differences occur in the first place. Based on the case and with reference to theories about how meaning is negotiated through a dual process of reification and participation, the paper discusses the role of plans in relation to processes in the evolution of different perspectives.

A comprehensive plan is supposed to guide detailed development planning. But the idea that the comprehensive plan could serve as an overall guiding document rests on the requirement for it to be anchored equally well across sectors. The results of this study suggest that the challenge of coordinating transportation and land use planning cannot merely be seen as a merger of activities from two organizational entities through common plans, but it has to be understood in terms of interaction between people, and their participation in common planning processes.