Achieving a Collaborative Goal-oriented Planning Process : Exploring the Early Stages of Swedish National Transport Planning

Sammanfattning

The transport sector is facing a noticeable challenge to decrease its environmental and climate impacts, as well as to increase the possibility to achieve the objectives that are managing the societal development. Additionally, the early stages of transport planning are characterised by the participation of many stakeholders and that several areas of interest are affected, which entails that no distinct solution exist. This is an example of a wicked problem. One strategy there has been found efficient to handle wicked problems is the collaborative planning approach. In Sweden, the Strategic Choice of Measures approach (SCM) is used in the early stages of the transport planning process to enable the integration of several perspectives and discussion of alternative measures. Previous studies show that there is a need for increased consideration of environmental aspects and use of the collaborative methodology in SCMs. Furthermore, there should be an increased coordination between the actors and inclusion of a broader problem description in the early stages of transport planning to be able to achieve the Swedish climate objective. This degree project aimed to explore the early stages of national transport planning in Sweden in relation to the potential of achieving the objectives managing the transport system, with a focus on the environmental aspects and objectives. A qualitative methodology was used, based on a literature review, case study, semi-structured interviews with representatives from four governmental authorities, as well as a content analysis based on concepts from theories on collaborative planning and management by objectives. The study found that the interviewees, in general, had a common understanding of the early stages of national transport planning in Sweden. The differing point of view that existed were dependent on the governmental authority’s role and possibility to participate in these planning steps. The biggest differences were found to be the opinion of what role the SCM should have in the transport planning and how environmental aspects should be considered. Further, the result and analysis showed that the early stages mean great opportunities for the contribution of achieving the environmental objectives, since the process of setting objectives is based on comprehensive objectives and a broad problem description, as well as the possibility to consider environmental aspects throughout the early stages. The result and analysis of the study also showed that potential of the early stages to consider environmental aspects and contribute to the achievement of environmental objectives would benefit from some improvements. The suggested improvements are to include support for increased transparency, develop new tools for assessment of measures and break down comprehensive objectives to the relevant planning level. Lastly, the study showed that the process pf setting achievement-inducing objectives and the collaborative planning approach may benefit from being used together. This conclusion would most likely be possible to apply to other societal development sectors when setting objectives.