Public participation in mobility research and mobility planning: Leveraging the habits, desires, and preferences of the public

Transport plans have contributed to unsustainable transport, which negatively impacts the
environment, people’s health, and social relations. Priorities for transport planners have been to
solve the ‘problem’ of car traffic by reducing travel time, speeding up traffic, and constructing
large-scale transport projects. This planning approach has allowed people to travel further by car
but has also reduced the number of trips by foot, bicycle, and public transport. Sustainable
transport can help reduce the impacts of transport by reducing the number and length of trips;
shifting modes from private and motorized forms of transport to public, active and/or electric
modes; as well as by increasing efficiency in the transport system.
Transport planning and transport research can help overcome the problems caused by
unsustainable transport. Transport researchers challenge and provide alternatives to the
conventional planning approach, alternatives which are required for sustainable transport
planning. Nevertheless, there is dissonance between the knowledge and action on sustainable
mobility. This implementation gap is partly caused by top-down, expert-led, and politicised
transport planning, in which little attention has been paid to involving the public. However, the
radical change from unsustainable to sustainable transport requires the public’s support, which
is why public participation has become an essential element of sustainable mobility. This thesis
therefore investigates four ways in which citizens can be involved in mobility planning and mobility
research: through co-creation; using citizen science; by developing participatory mobility
scenarios; and by conducting participatory ex-ante evaluation.
Based on a review of projects and papers, the novelty of co-creation can be put into question, as
its attributed impacts are similar to those of public participation. Co-creation can therefore be
defined as a form of public participation in which creative methods are used, innovation is
emphasised, and which is situated on the highest rungs of Arnstein’s (1969) ladder of
participation. Citizen science allows researchers and planners to collect transport data at a larger
scale and at lower costs compared to traditional data collection methods. The application of an
evaluation framework to cycling data collected by citizens shows that evaluation can increase the
quality of and the trust in citizen science data.
Applying wild cards – low probability but high impact events – when developing scenarios can
help transport planning overcome uncertainty and prepare for a variety of futures. The application
of participatory scenario building in a Belgian village showed that the disrupted mobility scenarios
for 2050 were very similar to the residents’ vision: a green and tranquil village with shops and
services where inhabitants can walk and cycle. Participatory evaluation allows citizens and
stakeholders to also be involved in the transport planning process after problem identification and
design of solutions. The involvement of citizens in the evaluation of co-designed solutions for traffic
safety in Brussels, Belgium, was found to have an overall positive impact on the co-creation
process, and vice versa.
Public participation in transport planning and transport research will not magically solve all of
today’s challenges. Nevertheless, involving the public in transport planning and transport
research can improve the quality of transport plans and transport research. As the transport plans
of the past that contributed to today’s problems were largely developed without the input of
citizens, citizens should have the right to help design the solutions of the future.