Stakeholder involvement in transport planning: participation and power

Abstract

Could and should diverse stakeholders be involved in urban transport planning? This paper evaluates such attempts at participation using three case studies of transport forums and evidence from semi-structured interviews, document analysis and literature review. A hypothesis that stakeholder inclusion makes planning expensive and inconclusive is falsified. Conversely, a hypothesis that increasing the diversity of stakeholders increases problem definition and innovation diversity is supported. A third hypothesis that stakeholder inclusion will be obstructed by concentrated power structures is also supported. Thus it is argued that diverse stakeholder participation in transport planning is potentially beneficial but difficult to achieve. Powerful actors that could otherwise obstruct a forum might be prevented from doing so by legitimisation of the forum by existing democratic structures. However, in the longer term a greater dispersal of power in society may be required.