Governing the Geneva Tram Network: Making Decisions without Making Choices

Abstract

This paper discusses the challenges of managing urban technical networks exploring four complementary dimensions: the autonomy of technical objects, the decision-making model, the reversibility of changes, and the centralization of command and control. The analysis is based on the example of the Geneva tram network, which has experienced an important change of its operating system over recent years. This transformation has created a vigorous social and political controversy. We argue that what is regarded as an intrinsic condition of ungovernability should be better understood as a more or less consciously constructed situation where (a) public transit development does not appear as a real priority within overall transportation policy in Geneva, (b) a delegation of responsibility of managing the tram network occurs from the political to the technical level, and (c) some of the decisions taken at the technical level have, in turn, physically compromised the development of the network.