Visual representation in urban transport planning: Where have all the cars gone?

Abstract

Abstract To strengthen public participation in planning and to aid the public in understanding the proposed plans, planners use different types of illustrations to show the outcome of a project. Effective presentation of the projects’ impacts on the public has become increasingly essential in planning and designing transport systems. However, a central premise for conscious decision-making is that the information of the project must be realistically presented so that the plans are accurate in relation to the estimated effects. Drawing from theories on visualisation in plans and science and technology studies (STS), the paper aims to discuss and raise awareness of visual representation in urban transport planning. Using data from large road infrastructure projects in Norway, visual illustrations found in planning documents are analysed in relation to written texts on traffic effects and the overall project goal. By focusing on the visual illustrations, it is shown that artefacts related to the green environment and transport modes of cycles, buses and walking are overrepresented in the documents. The visualisation support the idea of a sustainable transport system and a sustainable mobility planning approach. Most of the projects are road enlargement projects; however, there is a lack of visualisation of car flows, or the flows are very low. Cars are toned down (or even absent) compared with the estimated effects. The documents also show clear patterns of standardisation of artefacts. Nevertheless, there is a heterogeneity in the visual illustrations when combining different documents. The paper introduces the concept ‘add-on flexibility’ to illustrate this type of contextualisation. It contributes to a new critical perspective on visualisation and its representation in urban transport planning.