How and why plans are made and adopted, that result in growth in urban road traffic?

Reduction of (the growth in) urban road traffic is generally accepted as an integrated part of sustainable urban development. There is seemingly a relatively widespread consensus on which means are needed in order reduce urban car traffic volumes (physical and fiscal constraints on road traffic, improvements for public transport, walking and cycling, transport-reducing spatial planning). Many of these mechanisms are not employed to full advantage. On the contrary, in Norway urban road system capacity is undergoing expansion, the pace of development of public transport facilities are not keeping up with improvements in car traffic facilities, development of infrastructure for walking and cycling is developing slowly, urban sprawl and wrong location of operations are allowed, and car use is rising too. This study investigates how and why are planners making plans and politicians adopting them, allow land use development and development of transport systems that result in more urban car traffic despite clear aspirations toreduce urban car traffic growth. A number of possible explanations or hypothesis that can explain this are considered: Conflicting objectives and values; the politicians rationality and the rationality of politics; Lobbying; Institutional and organisational factors; The planners rationality andthe rationality of planning; Knowledge and lack of knowledge among important actors; Disagreement/uncertainty on effects of various means; Focus inplanning; and Use of transport models in urban planning. In order to testthese hypotheses, and to achieve a deeper understanding, two in-depth case studies were carried out, studying how the use of large transport modelsinfluences land use and transport planning and its results. Later, two surveys were carried out, among politicians and one among land use planners and transport planners, focusing on how these groups see objectives, values and the usefulness and effects of various means for reducing urban road transport. The findings are discussed. For the covering abstract see ITRD E145999