Evaluation of the old plan and the integration of other plans

The updating process of the Transport Plan was started in 2011 with an evaluation of the old plan. An independent planning office from Berlin was commissioned to evaluate and summarise what had been achieved in the years since 2003, what should be done in the future and to develop questions that could be raised in the following discussions. All these information were put into the brochure “Mobility 2020”, which was published in December 2011 (Stadt Leipzig, 2011c).

The procedure that led to the brochure was described in detail by Planner 5: ‘We took the old plan of 2003 and went through it chapter by chapter and evaluated them and this was summarised as the status quo of 2011 … The main work was done by an external planning office but in close cooperation … and then it was published in a brochure … which is also the basis for all discussions.’ This course of action and especially the result is transparent and the planners make the results of the evaluation available for all stakeholders and citizens, which seem to be a helpful start for wider discussions of transport related topics. The fact that outsiders evaluated the plan increased the unbiased view on it. Nevertheless, the local planners had to agree on the result. A discussion of the evaluation results with other departments and stakeholders in Leipzig before the publication of the brochure was not intended by transport planners. At the end of the publication is a part about the integration of the public and politicians into the transport planning process. Local planners seek to establish a citizen friendly process with the aim to integrate as many affected and interested people as possible. This entails intense information, communication and exchange between local planners and citizens. Therefore they aim to introduce several methods during the process:

- A round table ‘Transport Planning’ that shall secure a wide participation, requests topics, and discusses suggestions and hints. Support for the participants will be given by an external moderator, scientists and other experts. Intended participants are members of the city council, transport planners, representatives of the police, transport scientists, transport and environmental lobby groups and representatives of public transport of Leipzig.

- Citizen competition and citizen expertise, using the local knowledge, perceptions and priorities of citizens. This is planned parallel to the round table.

The announcement of this set of methods for the updating process would lead to high levels of DI and SI as the planners aim to involve a great variety of people in many different ways and right from the start.

The results of the citizen participation and the discussions of the round table shall be used to formulate a first draft of the Transport Plan. This would then be discussed again at the round table. The second draft would be brought into the formal participation process, where the citizens, other departments and stakeholders could bring in their comments again. The end of the updating process is estimated for spring 2014 (Stadt Leipzig, 2011c). This time the transport planners published at the beginning a timeline of the process and made it therefore transparent. Additionally, they intend to integrate departments and stakeholders at every stage of the process. If this is really the case it would lead to high levels of DI and SI.

Some environmental topics have to be considered more in the new plan due to changing legal requirements in Germany, for example clean air and noise reduction requirements. Local planners had set up new policies, like the SEKo, the cycling plan or the public transport plan, but there was also a change in European legislation in regard to clean air and noise reduction that made it necessary to implement more environmental topics in the Transport Plan.

The following two quotes show the influence of this change: ‘There is pressure from the Noise Action Plan and the Clean Air Plan to do something.’91 _{(Planner 5) – ‘There are}

requirements from our environmental goals and from other sectoral policies.’92 _(Planner

4) These examples indicate that transport planning cannot be done exclusively. Other policies, in this case most importantly environmental policies, need to be considered. Planner 4 emphasised the importance of the environmental policies: ‘We can make a certain pressure as we have the Clean Air Plan and we can say there is a resolution, we have to stick to it. In the end there are financial requirements as those plans have to be implemented.’93 _{This means that environmental planners can put pressure on non-}

91 _{„Aus dem Luftreinhalteplan oder Lärmaktionsplan gibt es wahrscheinlich auch Druck“ – Planner 5}

92 _{„Wir haben Anforderungen aus den Umweltqualitätszielen, wir haben Anforderungen aus anderen Fachplanungen.“ –}

Planner 4

93 _{„Da können wir einen gewissen Druck ausüben, da wir den Luftreinhalteplan in der Hinterhand haben und sagen}

können, da gibt es einen Beschluss. Da hängen dann am Ende Finanzen dran, weil es konkret umgesetzt werden muss.“ – Planner 4

environmental planners with their environmental policies as previously there had been an agreement on the environmental policies. So, in case the transport planners would not follow the aims of the environmental and other sectoral plans there could be planning mismatches that would lead to financial problems. The cases of the Clean Air Plan and the Noise Action Plan are discussed in the next chapter.

With regard to car infrastructure it seems that there is also a change in how transport planners think about it. The Transport Plan of 2003 planned two big ring roads to be constructed in Leipzig to take car traffic out of residential areas and the city centre. However, parts of one of rings will not be constructed in the future as Planner 1 and 5 indicated: ‘The Middle Ring which will not be closed entirely anymore, as there is the alluvial forest.’94 _{(Planner 1) – ‘We disbanded the concept of the entire Middle Ring,}

what mean that we will not close the Ring in the South where the alluvial forest is.’95

(Planner 5) The reason for a change of the plans is environmental concerns as was also articulated by Stakeholder 1: ‘In the main road plan of 2003 the Middle Ring was planned in its entirety, but in the meantime this project was stopped in the southern alluvial forest due to reasons of environment and nature protection.’96 _{So, this change of}

plans is an example how environmental objectives can change transport planning which also means a higher consideration of environmental objectives.

It seems that the transport planners intent to adjust their previously made decisions to the changed circumstances but also to a changed perception of environmental topics. They even considered a possible reduction of certain bigger car-focussed projects in the future in case that the citizens of Leipzig use modes of eco-mobility. That is a change in transport planning behaviour compared to previous years with the effect that environmental objectives are rated more importantly.