FROM GROWTH TO EQUITY AND SUSTAINABILITY - PARADIGM SHIFT IN TRANSPORT PLANNING

Societal innovations today are more likely to originate from grassroots movements than from technical elites, but innovations are not likely to be successful without the consent and active support of the experts. Therefore the attitudes and perceptions of experts are of interest. This article discusses the findings of a scenario project undertaken covering nine separate fields of activity ranging from population and lifestyles to regional development and urban form with special emphasis on issues of transport and communications. A structured questionnaire was used to solicit responses to seed scenarios from experts involved in transport and communications planning and research. The article discusses how these experts see the future of transport and communications in Europe in the context of other fields related to the spatial organization of society, and in which direction they want policy making in these fields to develop. The results showed a widely shared concern that the current growth-oriented development may lead to serious conflicts with other objectives such as equity and environmental balance.