"Transport Planning and Urban Planning: Two Worlds Apart"
Both in the academic literature and in planning practice, the lack of integration of the disciplines of spatial planning and transport planning is a regularly recurring topic. Although attempts for more close collaboration have been made in research and in practice, the walls between the two fields seem to be quite solid, and it is still a long way to real integration. For outsiders, this is difficult to understand, because the construction of transport infrastructure has often a severe impact on the environment. In addition, accessibility, the pre-eminent object of transport planning activities, is an important driving factor of the spatial development of cities and regions. This review, based on the literature and the observation of a number of recent developments, explores the background and importance of this duality, starting from the hypothesis that each of both fields identifies with a very different paradigm, and consequently use other vocabularies. This translates into different educational and research traditions, and ultimately also into separate policy realms within government settings.
Kobe Boussauw teaches in the MSc in Urban Design and Spatial Planning (STeR*) at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel. His research deals with the reciprocal relationships between mobility, planning, and the built environment, both in an analytical and in a policy oriented sense. Within the first track, the way in which various aspects of spatial structure interact with each other is assessed, whereas in the second track the focus is on decision-making processes that impact on such spatial functioning. Kobe's concern is mainly with the relationship between proximity as a spatial quality, urban liveability, and sustainability.