The arterial street presents a specific challenge to traffic planners, since there are no clear visions on how to handle this multifunctional environment, containing a wide range of conflicting interests. As a continuation of the EU-project ARTISTS, the Department of Technology and Society at Lund University, runs a PhD-project with the purpose of developing an efficient tool in the decision making and design process with a specific focus on arterial streets. This paper focuses on the complexity of traffic planning regarding the extensive amount of interests, needs and demands, of both decision makers, planners and stakeholders, that should be taken into consideration within the planning process. Do the qualities characterizing the planning process actually cover the interests, needs and demands of the stakeholders? Which qualities and values are given priority, and by whom? To analyse if the qualities used in the planning process reflect the expectations of the users of the urban street system, a minor pilot study will be carried out during spring 2006. To survey the range of qualities demanded, an interview study with traffic planners along with a focus group study with stakeholders will take place. Later on, a Stated Preference study will take place in order to examine 1) whether these qualities are sufficient for the users of the street and 2) how the qualities are valued. The result of the pilot study will be presented at TRA 2006 (A). For the covering abstract of the conference see ITRD E212343.
Abstract