From car-oriented to car-reduced planning practices: The complex patterns of actors’ mobility-related beliefs in developing a new neighborhood

Abstract

The dominance of automobility is fundamentally embedded in urban planning. Its negative consequences, e.g., air pollution, congestion, and climate change, are known and perceptible. However, a fundamental change from car-oriented to car-reduced planning is far from mainstream. We assume that the required transition strongly relates to the diverging beliefs of the actors involved. To investigate how the beliefs of organized actors influence the transition from car-oriented to car-reduced planning, this study concerns the case of developing a new, car-reduced neighborhood in a German city. We used qualitative analysis of expert interviews to derive four intertwining belief-driven patterns of transition governance we consider influential steps for the transition from car-oriented to car-reduced planning. These are: (i) belief setting, (ii) belief translation, (iii) belief persistence, and (iv) belief change. Indeed, the car-reduced belief of certain actors leads to new planning practices. These, in turn, cause a belief change in formerly opposing actors.