Analysing Models as a Knowledge Technology in Transport Planning

Abstract

Models belong to a wider family of knowledge technologies, applied in the transport area. Models sometimes share with other such technologies the fate of not being used as intended, or not at all. The result may be ill‐conceived plans as well as wasted resources. Frequently, the blame for such a mismatch is put on irrational decision‐making, or ‘politics’, while still more energy is put into improving the models. These problems are not new, but seem persistent. It may be appropriate to re‐read the symptoms, and consider new cures for disconnections between models and their uses. This paper applies critical analytic literature on knowledge utilization and policy influence. A simple scheme based in this literature is drawn up to provide a framework for discussing the interface between urban transport planning and model use. A successful example of model use in Stockholm, Sweden is used as a heuristic device to illuminate how such an analytic scheme may allow patterns of insight about the use, influence and role of models in planning to emerge. The main contribution of the paper is to demonstrate that concepts and terminologies from knowledge use literature can provide interpretations of significance for the simulation model area.