On the road to sustainability : exploring transition and transport planning in Oslo, Norway

Abstract: Achieving climate change mitigation targets requires a drastic cut in emissions from the transport sector – a huge challenge for regions where a heavily road-based mobility is already established, and where emissions have steadily increased for the past 20 years. Expectations of highly efficient, fast and ever-increasing mobility adds to the challenge. Oslo, Norway, is a highly relevant case in this respect. It is a region where problems of air pollution and congestion, as well as a growing population, amplify the need for a transition and new solutions. How the transport plans and visions for the Oslo region see the ever-increasing expectations of faster and more efficient mobility for everyone is a field in need of more research. This paper contributes to this by critically discussing the problems connected to highly mobility-driven societies with the use of hypermobility as the theoretical framework. I collected first-hand information from key people within transport planning, as well as from research and environmental organizations in Oslo through semi-structured interviews. In addition, I conducted desk research on the frameworks and relevant transport plans on a regional and national level. The multi-level perspective (MLP) constituted the analytical framework, with which I mapped out the factors that shape visions and plans – with a focus on the transport planning regime. This helped identify where ‘cracks’ in the regime might form, opening up for a transition. Findings suggest that the actors see technological developments and behavior changes related to car-sharing, autonomous vehicles and ICT as promising solutions and niches for the future. Electrification and hydrogen vehicles are seen as an important solution to emissions and air pollution, but it is not sufficiently addressing road traffic volumes. Furthermore, the objectives and self-interest among the actors is a challenge in the planning processes, amplified by the organizational structure in which the planning and cooperation takes place. These organizational structures help maintain status quo hindering a transition. Financing infrastructure is a key discussion point among the informants, and despite optimism in the plans, the visions largely still cling on to the concept of a hyper-mobile population and the regime still depend on cars and the technological fixes to “green” them. This might be interpreted as inherently self-contradictory. Having applied the theory of hypermobility and the framework of the MLP to transport planning, this thesis the encourages further research into the role of hypermobility in largely car-based societies, and the possibilities for transitions.