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This article analyses actor relationships in Transit Oriented Development (TOD) planning in order to better understand the preconditions necessary for planning processes to result in TOD in lower density contexts, in suburbs, or small cities. Empirically, the analysis builds on a comparative case study of TOD planning projects. The focus in the analytical work is on understanding how market conditions in lower density contexts influence the conditions for TOD planning projects, and how this feeds through to planning processes. The overall conclusion is that we should not expect that planning processes in small cities with low to medium densities of populations and activities differ much from those in more ‘classic’ highly urban TOD locations. Market conditions had an impact on planning processes, but once in the planning stage conditions for implementation depended more on the ability to handle competing interests and less on market conditions. In terms of policy recommendations, it is important for actors to develop a joint vision of the built environment of the site in question that channels organizations’ individual actions in a joint direction. The ability to achieve such a joint vision for the design of the site in question may be more important in small towns than in more ‘typical’ TOD contexts in denser urban areas. This is because all enablers need to work together in a positive way in such location – which may be marginal from a market point of view – for the development to be able to go ahead.

This paper analyzes strategies that can be successfully pursued to implement measures to reduce car traffic in what has traditionally been a very car-centric planning praxis. Analytically, the paper use path dependency theory to provide an understanding of why certain types of measure are not implemented in cities on as widespread a basis as policy objectives may require, and to understand how transport planning path dependence in urban authorities might be changed. Empirically, the analysis builds on a comparative case study of transport and land use planning in Swedish cities. The most effective strategies do not appear to be radical policies leading to fast implementation of goals about sustainable transport, for example by implementing very car restrictive measures, even in the face of resistance from the public and from within the city administration. The results support an approach that from a strategy making perspective can be understood as an institutionalizing process by which internal organizational and external public support for car restrictive and potentially controversial measures are built. Implementation may be achieved by building new institutions within city administrations, where routines and norms gradually change so that car restraint measures gradually become part of the normal way of doing transport planning. This then starts to lock-in certain patterns of travel and make further car restraint measures more feasible and institutionalized as part of a standard menu of measures that cities use, and not something out of the order.

The governance of public transport is experiencing growing interest as a field of research. Collaboration, contracts, ownership are among the concepts applied in the literature. Outside the specific field of public transport, the term meta-governance and meta-governors - referring to actors and activities that aim to govern and guide a network - has gained increased attention. The point of departure for this article is to study if and to what extent the concept of meta-governance can contribute additional insight to the study of public transport governance, if signs of meta-governance in public transport can be observed in two cases included in the study, and finally, what the nature is of the networks within which it takes place. The cases are the Copenhagen Region, Denmark, and the West Midlands Region, England. In both cases there are signs of meta-governance. It is not clear whether it has increased in scale or level of activity over recent years, but it is likely to increase in the future. The core meta-governor identified in both cases is the passenger transport authority, although in the Danish case there are more actors of almost similar significance and governing capability. We conclude that the meta-governance concept adds to other concepts used in analyses of public transport governance by including more instruments of governance, bringing to the fore the need of a core, nodal actor, and by stressing furthermore the autonomy but also interdependence of other actors in the network.

För att få fler människor att välja kollektivtrafiken behöver ny bebyggelse lokaliseras till platser med god kollektivtrafik, till exempel, till stationsnära lägen och genom att förtäta och blanda bostäder, service och grönområden för att ge invånarna närhet till olika aktiviteter. En kollektivtrafikorienterad bebyggelseplanering (KOB) – innebär att man skapar en tätare och mer stadsmässig bebyggelse kring kollektivtrafikens noder och stråk. I mindre tätorter och på landsbygden är förutsättningarna för det annorlunda än i större städer, och KOB måste därför anpassas till dessa förutsättningar. Planeringen av KOBpåverkas därtill av flera offentliga och privata organisationer, och deras samverkan är av central betydelse för att KOB ska kunna förverkligas i mindre tätorter och på landsbygden. I denna rapport beskrivs hur man kan främja KOB i mindre tätorter och på landsbygden i Sverige. Följande fem övergripande rekommendationer syftar till att stimulera KOB på platser med lägre täthet men möjligheter till god kollektivtrafikförsörjning: a) Utveckla en regional KOB-strategi och en regionalt anpassad KOB-typologi b) Ta fram strategier för kollektivtrafikorienterad fastighetsutveckling i samarbetemellan myndigheter och marknadsaktörer c) Utveckla kommunala förtätningsstrategier för kollektivtrafikorienteradbebyggelsed) Utveckla kommunala kollektivtrafikstrategier e) Utveckla en väl fungerande samverkan kring KOB