When implementing major European transport corridors, such as the Core network corridors (CNC) which is a part of the European Trans-European Network for Transports (TEN-T), the number of stakeholders affected is huge. A governance framework for the CNC’s implementation was introduced in EU Regulation No. 1315/2013, and is now being enacted. Sustainable development and stakeholder involvement are crucial areas in the implementation. This interview study investigated the need for complementary governance, here meaning governance in addition to the governance framework set in the regulation. The interviews involved 23 individuals from the Baltic Sea Region, who are affiliated to the four categories public authority, infrastructure organisation/company, private company and other organisation. The results confirm the importance of an inclusive approach. Further, the results showed a need to ensure that all three social, economic and ecological dimensions of sustainability are considered. Summarising the interview results, four areas for attention in the further CNC implementation process were identified: more and directed information, extended involvement of private sector transport stakeholders, extended involvement of regional and local stakeholders, and involvement of stakeholders located geographically outside the immediate corridor. Complementary governance can be a tool to address these areas, as governance structures and processes can involve stakeholders and steer towards desired outcomes. The interviewees own ideas for complementary governance are presented in this paper.

The CNC implementation is currently an on-going process and these results will be further utilised in the process, as a basis for stakeholder discussions of changes in practice.

The implementation of transport infrastructure plans often has significant impacts on landscapes, especially where new roads and railroads are built. Key decisions regarding the building of new transport infrastructures are often made on a strategic level, where the long-term development of a region is determined, and before the infrastructure project actually begins. In this paper we build on previous advances in Strategic Environmental Assessment theory by linking the process-related issues of the integration of these assessments in general to landscape issues in particular; we use a multiple case study of Swedish transport planning.

Results of this study indicate that the particular planning processes we looked at failed to carry out strategic landscape assessments and integrate landscape assessments in the planning process. We conclude that this can be explained by the flawed procedure of assessing landscape, the unhelpful structuring of SEA reports and by process-related issues. The idea of applying a holistic understanding of landscape, in line with the ELC, was notably absent from the studied cases. The lack of consideration of landscape as a whole can be attributed to poor use of dissipated and fragmented knowledge about landscapes as well as weaknesses in the assessment procedure. Our results indicate that the traditions of EIA are still prevalent in the practice of SEA, despite the fact that SEA theory has moved away from EIA-based methodology to become a tool for integrating environmental concerns into decision-making and for paying close attention to strategic decision processes.

In this paper, stakeholders’ expected benefits and concerns are presented regarding the development of Core Network Corridors (CNCs) within the European transport initiative, the Trans-European Network for Transports. An interview study was conducted with 23 stakeholders from different parts of the society in the Baltic Sea area. The results show that stakeholders have a range of expectations, both positive and negative, for the development of the CNC. Stakeholders’ views were sorted into three categories based on the gathered data: matters that are already regulated; unregulated matters that often include vaguely defined responsibilities and require diverse stakeholder engagement for improvement; and matters for which there are concerns about negative outcomes. The results indicate (a) a need for cost-effective complementary governance, here described as additional governance measures to those regulated in the initial framework, (b) that a wider group of stakeholders than is currently involved is needed in the on-going implementation process. Additional regional and local level stakeholders, within and outside of the CNC, and private businesses, would enhance the benefits and/or mitigate negative implications of the developed CNCs, (c) an openness for complementary governance in the on-going CNC implementation process. This openness needs to be considered when developing models for policy packaging.

Interest in climate-sensitive urban design has grown in recent decades. Nevertheless, there are various difficulties associated with such an approach. One of these is the lack of simple comfort assessment tools. This paper presents a method for microclimate assessment that is composed of a wind comfort analysis and a microclimate assessment based on measuring a combination of solar access and wind velocity. The study includes analysis of a proposed urban project situated in Kiruna, a Swedish town located in the subarctic region of the country. The results from the simulations were then overlaid to produce combined microclimate maps for three specific dates: winter solstice, spring equinox and summer solstice. The maps illustrate relative microclimate differences between areas in the proposed project based on combinations of wind/lee and sun/shadow conditions. The outcomes showed that only a small proportion of the area studied had favourable microclimate conditions at the winter solstice and spring equinox. The thermal comfort Index OUT_SET* was calculated for the summer solstice in the study area. Comparisons between the spatial distribution of OUT_SET* values and the microclimate assessment map showed a large degree of correlation. The method is intended to be a simple and representative evaluation of microclimate

In this paper results are presented from document- and literature studies examining how the concepts of sustainability and sustainable development (economical, ecological and social) are used in the process of developing main transport corridors in the European Union.  Particular focus has been placed on the Scandinavian-Mediterranean (ScanMed) transport corridor, a strategic part of the trans-European network for transports (TEN-T). European Union transport policy documents were studied along with the legislation for TEN-T and documents regarding implementation of the ScanMed corridor.

The paper highlights that the concept of sustainable development is used in a multifaceted way, sometimes indicating the overarching goal of sustainability, sometimes indicating certain dimensions, and sometimes referring to conducting efforts in a sustainable way. This implies that stakeholders are led to perceive the concept in various ways, influencing how measures are implemented and how the economic, ecological and social dimensions of sustainability are integrated. Reinforcing a holistic perspective of sustainability and sustainable development as integrating economic, ecological and social benefits for a desired development would avoid the perception of sustainability as merely addressing a specific dimension, like environmental concerns. In part this could be strengthened by clearly framing the particular dimensions of sustainability being addressed in different parts of major transport corridor documents, for example; “economic sustainability” or “social sustainability”.

Introduction

This paper describes the modification and development of methodologies to assess the impacts of Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) applications for Vulnerable Road users (VRUs) in the domains of safety, mobility and comfort. This effort was carried out in the context of the VRUITS project whose aim was to produce results at the EU-28 level.

Methods

An existing safety methodology was modified to take into account specific VRU aspects. The mobility and comfort assessments methodologies were developed in the project.

Results

The safety, mobility and comfort methodologies were applied to ten ITS applications for VRUs. The first innovation determined how the nine safety mechanisms for ex-ante analysis of ITS applications, including direct and indirect effects, can incorporate the important characteristics of the VRU groups (pedestrians, cyclists and Power-Two-Wheeler riders) in the analysis. The second innovation developed a conceptual model for mobility and comfort. Thirdly, the estimation of quantitative effects, using literature, empirical findings and expert judgement, was developed.

Conclusions

The new safety, mobility and comfort assessment methodologies were applied to calculate the respective effects for VRUs using ITS. These results are ex-ante findings, as very few to no empirical results for ITS applications for VRUs are available. In order to improve the accuracy of the estimates, there is a need for better standardized data and at the European level. Finally, validation of the methods could be done in the future field operational tests focusing on measuring user behavior.

Den stadsomvandling som pågår i de två kommunerna Kiruna och Gällivare sker på grund av gruvindustrins utveckling och innebär att delar av samhällena flyttas och förnyas. Då ett nytt samhälle ska byggas upp skapas goda förutsättningar att bygga och utforma klokt med hänsyn till drift och underhåll av gator och vägar och samtidigt bygga attraktivt, vackert, tryggt, säkert och grönt. Tillsammans med kommunerna samt ett antal företag har Luleå tekniska universitet undersökt faktorer som är betydelsefulla för att underlätta, förbättra och effektivisera drift och underhåll.

Planering för svenska städer sker oftast traditionellt med sommar som utgångspunkt trots att det råder andra årstider än sommar större delen av året. Planering för vinter är viktigt för att minska risken för snöröjningsskador och halkolyckor, omhänderta smältvattenvolymer, mm. Det är många olika behov som måste tillgodoses, både från boende och trafik och detta är förenat med kostnader.

För att samla information och kunskap har det genomförts intervjuer med driftspersonal från både kommunerna och företag. En workshop med experter inom planering och utformning har genomförts. Syftet med workshopen var att lyfta fram goda, innovativa och funktionella förslag och lösningar på planering och utformning i en stadsmiljö med avseende främst på vinterväghållning.

Organisationerna med drift och underhåll i Gällivare och Kiruna är relativt likartade, en viss del av vinterunderhållet sköts av en kommunal del och resterande är upphandlat till entreprenörer. Små maskiner är mindre vanliga och saknar också den kapacitet som kan krävas ibland för att hantera stora snömängder. En mindre maskin är ibland bättre eller kanske enda alternativet om det är trångt men entreprenörerna anser det svårt att få ekonomi på en sådan maskin. Fler och fler privatpersoner anlitar företag till maskinell snöröjning av den privata gården. Allt oftare upplever kommunernas entreprenörer att den ”privata snön” tippas på kommunala ytor vilket oftast inte är tillåtet och skapar merarbete.

Det är viktigt att beställaren har uppdaterad dokumentation som beskriver hur områdena ska underhållas och om det finns särskilda regler/önskemål om hur och var snö får plogas eller lagras. Lokal snölagring i centrum är svårt pga. stora volymer som är utrymmeskrävande, därför transporteras snö ut från centrum till stora snödeponier. Entreprenörerna önskar fler lokala tillfälliga lagringsplatser för att bättre kunna fördela maskinbehovet.

Mer samordning mellan exempelvis kommunala fastighetsbolag avseende snöröjning skulle kunna vara fördelaktigt för både beställare och utförare. Det är också viktigt att upphandling av underhåll sker med tanke på eventuella samordningsfaktorer som kan gynna inte bara entreprenörerna utan även beställaren. Den ekonomiska budgeten för vinterväghållning behöver också vara realistisk, den överskrids ofta på bekostnad av barmarkunderhållet. Den samhällsekonomiska skadekostnaden för fotgängare är betydligt högre än kostnaden för vinterväghållningen på is och snö. Samhällsekonomiskt vore det lönsamt med större satsningar på vinterväghållning för fotgängare.

Ett av de vanligare redskapen som används till snöröjning i tätorten är multiskopa. Den är flexibel, ger god åtkomst i trånga utrymmen och kan även användas till att bära undan eller lasta snö. På utvalda stråk eller platser är markvärme som smälter bort snö och is ett alternativ till traditionell snö- och halkbekämpning. Avrinning måste dock säkerställas.

Snö kan även användas till mycket positivt. Den kan användas som ett element i trafikmiljön, skapa avgränsningar och avsmalningar som kan öka trafiksäkerheten. Det går skapa lekytor för barn, backar för skidåkning och pulkåkning, som byggnadsmaterial till konstverk, som bullerskydd eller skapa helt unika miljöer beroende på årstidsvariation.