Articles

This article provides insight into how the governance system of megacities, as an assemblage of many different factors, can preemptively react to emerging shrinkage. This is a topic that is rarely addressed in the current literature. The article examines the suburban region of the Tokyo Megacity served by the Tsukuba Express. The region is studied both quantitatively and qualitatively using a mixed-methods approach, and the results are related to the governance system model as originally developed. The results suggest that shrinkage-preemptive governance involves a mix of pro-growth and shrinkage-adapting strategies, but that implementing such strategies through interpolicy and intermunicipal coordination is problematic in growing metropolitan suburbs. We suggest (1) the national government plays a role in interpolicy coordination and regional governance of shrinkage, (2) the formation of political consciousness around regional transit infrastructure to foster regional coordination, and (3) a regional effort to restructure regional socio-economic identities to mitigate dependence on Tokyo and enhance economic resilience. This study shows that governance system models can assist planners and policymakers in engaging with the complexity of post-growth urban challenges.

One of the reasons to subsidise public transport is to improve the mobility of low-income groups by providing affordable public transport; however, the literature describes a situation whereby those with a low income are unable to afford the cheapest tickets per trip, i.e. travelcards, as they usually require a considerable up-front cost. In this study, we use a large dataset from the Swedish National Travel Survey to investigate whether, and if so how, income explains monthly travelcard possession among individuals for whom this would have been the least expensive option. We find a robust positive relationship between income and travelcard possession among low-income earners, indicating that those with a low income pay more to use public transport than more affluent individuals. As the accessibility of low-income groups is an important motivation for public transport subsidies, the findings from this study have important policy implications.

The objective of the paper is to explore whether particular problematisations of cars and car use lead to sets of solutions that may not deal with all problems associated with car use, and whether this leads to any internal conflicts within the chosen policies. The paper is based on a review of local transport policy documents from 13 cities in four countries using the lens of policy problematisation as an analytical framework. Some critiques of policy problematisation are discussed in the paper but it is nonetheless shown to be helpful for this analysis. The paper finds that the problems most typically highlighted in the strategies reviewed are poor accessibility (as a “bad” in itself, but also because it is seen to compromise economic growth); the negative impacts of traffic on liveability of the central part of the city and therefore its ability to attract inhabitants, especially those needed to support a knowledge economy; local air and noise pollution; and road safety. The resulting visions are for urban areas less dominated by private cars, with more green and public space, in order to maximise accessibility and liveability to attract economic development; and most cities also seek to reduce car travel as a proportion of trips. However, in many cities this vision covers mainly the central city, with car use set to remain dominant in outer cities and for regional trips. In almost all cities, only one measure, parking management, is proposed as a means of cutting car use. The differing sets of measures envisaged for outer areas of cities threatens to undermine those envisaged for more central cities.

Drawing on the conceptualisation of motility as the capacity to be mobile, this paper employs statistical and GIS-based analyses to explore the associations between travel mode choice and mobility-related attitudes, skills and opportunities to access transport modes. The study builds on survey data and spatial data from three urban contexts of Beijing, Gothenburg and Malmo to analyse both individual-level and contextual factors influencing sustainable travel behaviour. The results indicate that despite varying contexts, the three dimensions of attitude, skills and access significantly explain individuals’ travel behaviour and their choice to travel by public transport, bicycle or car. Among the studied travel modes, cycling appears to be a competitive mode when the travel distances are within 5 km. In all three urban contexts, individuals who have greater environmental awareness are more likely to travel by public transport or cycling if the physical conditions facilitate using these modes. Good access to public transport is likely to increase the usage of both cycling and public transport and reduce car use. Favourable conditions for cycling within 2 km and 5 km radius can positively encourage people to use a bicycle as a feeder mode for public transport. Overall, our findings demonstrate that for mobility policies to increase individuals’ motility in relation to sustainable travel modes and encourage a travel behaviour shift towards using alternatives to cars, planners need to take more holistic approaches and design policies that deal with the three motility dimensions in an integrated manner and avoid focusing on a single dimension in isolation.

The overall aim of the thesis is to investigate the knowledge problem in regional public transport planning. The knowledge problem is twofold. How do transport policy arrive at the desirable actions they take and how do they assess the alternatives, and what can we say about the contributions of already implemented transport schemes. Paper 1 explores how policy objectives in regional public transport are translated into action and to investigate how public transport measures are evaluated. Paper 2 presents a case study of Spårväg syd, a light rail project in Stockholm, with the ambition to understand the use of appraisal tools and discuss how these can be improved. Paper 3 investigates the links between accessibility, as well as the composition of accessibility and real estate values. Paper 4 analyses the causal effect of a train station on local labour income among current residents as well as the labour income of the residents that the place attracts. Finally, paper 5 explores the association between the accessibility that train stations provide and local labour income more broadly across Sweden. For paper 1, the results indicate that decision-makers ask for knowledge on ongoing trends such as patronage and market share in relation to all motorized transport, an increased interest in understanding the impacts of transport on society, the strategies of PT are connected to long term regional ambitions. Paper 2 highlights that particular projects are tightly connected to long term ambitions. Spårväg syd was on the agenda long before a formal cost-benefit analysis was conducted. The project is also tightly connected to political goals of land-use development. The findings from paper 3 reinforce the evidence that real estate values are positively associated with accessibility. Also, the paper finds that the composition of accessibility, namely the degree to which the accessibility is built up by one or several modes of transport, is positively associated to real estate values as well. The policy implication of this finding is that transport appraisal could add assessments not only of marginal accessibility changes, but also the marginal change in the composition of accessibility. The results from paper 4 indicate an absence of a causal link between train stations on local labour income. Both in terms of the longitudinal analysis and the spatial sorting analysis. For paper 5, accessibility through the national railway network was found to be associated with local labour incomes. The thesis increases the evidence of effects of transport on income and real estate prices. Moreover, the thesis concludes that regional public transport planning seems to be subject to different motivations and trade-offs depending on project and context, which complicates the seeking for a universal appraisal procedure.

Public procurement is widely used in order to incorporate competition into public services. Competition in procurement often leads to efficiency but the process can also raise some problems. While providing the procurement documents you do not know who will be your upcoming partner. Another aspect is how flexibility can be managed in contract design while maintaining a high service quality. The aim of this study is twofold. Firstly, the aim is to investigate how flexibility has been expressed and historically described in bus tendering documents. Secondly, to explore how the actors define or describe flexibility and its importance in tendering. Data was collected from ten years of tendering documents in the bus sector in Sweden and from interviews and a workshop. The results showed that flexibility in tendering documents has been and still is low for the operators. However, the actors wish for more flexibility and new forms of contracts can make it easier to include higher degrees of flexibility in future contracts. The paper contributes to the ongoing discussion about how to design contracts and to manage flexibility. The study has potential to create knowledge and contribute to better decision making for future procurement of bus transport.

In recent years, the advent of disruptive transport technologies has started to transform the transport sector. Governments are therefore challenged to find the right balance in transport governance frameworks that allows new services, practices, and entrants to emerge, but also ensures adequate and equitable service delivery, a fair and competitive landscape, and fulfillment of policy objectives. Workshop five of the 16th International Conference on Competition and Ownership in Land Passenger Transport (Thredbo 16) focused on this challenge. Eight studies of governance approaches to ridesourcing, autonomous public transport, and Mobility-as-a-Service were reported. These examples catered for a discussion on the development status of disruptive transport technologies and on what roles governments have adopted, what types of regulations and policies they have been using, and what is known about the impacts of these approaches. Drawing on this discussion, the workshop advocates transport scholars to work on the theoretical grounding of key concepts and to elicit empirical evidence from trials and operations on disruptive transport technologies’ effects on e.g. equity, employment, and modal shares. To governments wishing to facilitate the development and diffusion of disruptive transport technologies, the workshop offers ten recommendations that in sum describe an explorative, collaborative, and reflexive governance approach.

Greater Copenhagen is often cited as a good example of cross-border cooperation. Shared historical contexts and socio-political willingness have meant that considerable resources have been invested into the development of infrastructure in this region. The Öresund fixed link constitutes the most important element of this infrastructure, facilitating a cross-border public transport system which ties the region together. This public transport system in turn underpins the social, economic and environmental sustainability of the cross-border region. The aim of this study is to investigate the issues at play with respect to improving the coherence of this cross-border public transport system, in relation to ticketing and public transport information in particular. This study comprises the compilation and analysis of the perspectives of the actors involved in and affected by the development of the cross-border transport system. In total, twelve semi-structured interviews were conducted. Six predominant themes emerged from the analysis of the empirical material: “Focus on the customer”, “The Other Side”, “Tidying up at home first”, “Political challenges”, “Back to basics” and “The low-hanging fruits”. It became apparent that the prioritization of internal and organizational issues in the first instance could mean compromises, not only for cross-border cooperation but also for the customer’s (the passenger’s) experience. Results suggest that improvements to coherence in this transport system will most likely take the form of incremental changes and adopting common standards. This is opposed to the development of common systems, or of a significant departure from existing systems.

In both Stockholm and Tokyo, small dwell time delays of at most 5 min make up around 90% of the total delays for commuter trains. To understand these disturbances, we use high resolution data on dwell times and passenger counts from both countries over the last several years. We find that trains in Tokyo are much more congested than in Stockholm, and that the exchange of passengers is modest at most stations in the latter city. In both cities, the range of dwell time delays is quite narrow, with between 40 and 50 s separating the 5th and 95th percentiles. Most delays are thus very small, and even small adjustments to dwell times can make a big difference overall. We find that the data on passengers explain about 40% of this variation in dwell time delays, if we account for non-linear and interaction effects, which is thus a ballpark estimate for how much the exchange of passenger contributes to delays for these trains. We also produce simple, linear models which can be used in practice to assign more appropriate dwell times. To facilitate such improvements, key stakeholders and practitioners have been closely involved with the research in both countries.

Over the years, passenger incentives have increasingly been used in Swedish public bus transport to increase ridership by introducing passenger incentive contracts. In 2015, half of all active contracts were of this type. In those contracts, operator revenue comprises production-related revenue and a per-passenger–based incentive payment. Using rich passenger data, this paper analyses whether the ridership increase in the Skåne region can be attributed to the introduction of this contract type.

The results cannot prove that passenger incentive contracts have increased ridership more than traditional gross-cost contracts. This is probably because both the per-passenger payment and operator freedom to adjust traffic provision are too low. While simulation studies have previously shown that higher payments and freedoms would increase bus ridership, it is unclear whether public transport authorities should leave the freedom to adjust traffic provision to operators, given the authorities’ social welfare responsibility. Instead, factors outside the contract, such as car-restricting measures and improved bus road space, might be more effective in increasing the number of passengers.