Does sustainable mobility require new roles for urban planning?

There is a broad consensus that a shift in the transport sector is crucial for meeting the climate goals of Agenda 2030. As part of this ambition, the share of travel with energy efficient travel modes, such as walking, bicycling, or taking public transport/other shared services, needs to increase visavi car use.

In the literature, as well as in policy practice, there is an assumption that necessary changes in both how we move in cities, and how we plan them - cannot be implemented within the framework of the status quo. Instead, the changes are considered to require new innovative methods. As a result, a range of different processes of social innovations, urban experiments and urban living labs are being implemented. One method in this context is various forms of pilot projects through so-called "test bed planning". Test bed planning is a collaborative planning model that experiments with existing ideas and/or develops new ones with the hope for both knowledge exchange and lasting contributions to a broader system change.

What happens to the traditional planning role in these processes? And what type(s) of knowledge are generated and sought after in test labs? The purpose of the study is to analyze the emergence of new roles in Nordic municipal planning, with special focus on municipal planners. In particular, the project analyzes the municipal planning role in urban development projects that experiment with sustainable mobility through integrated housing and transport planning and new forms of smart mobility solutions. In the project, we analyze and follow three test labs as for sustainable transport experiments. One in Helsinki, one in Copenhagen and one in Stockholm.