Do you have a Plan B?

Abstract

This study explores adaptive capacities in infrastructure preparedness planning from a resilience approach using the bridge between Denmark and Sweden as a case. First, a theoretical framework anchors adaptive capacity in a more general resilience discourse focusing on flexibility and adaptive capacity with emphasis on citizens' ability to interpret information and adjust their behaviour without prior planning and training or instructions. Then, findings from a small qualitative study (n = 45) of the perception of commuters and travellers of the responsibilities and contingencies involved in potential long‐term disruptions of the Øresund Bridge are discussed. The most important suggested recommendation for authorities and infrastructure owners is simply to remind users that an infrastructure is not a given—in other words, to ask travellers whether “they have a Plan B,” thereby prompting citizens to contemplate their dependency on infrastructure and prepare for a disruption.