The social dimension of sustainable transport : perceptions among Oslo's planners and politicians

Sustainable development is at the top of the policy agenda in city and transport planning but is often criticized when it is implemented. The critique comes from people who argues that measures to improve environmental quality often leads to social injustice. For a measure to be sustainable, it needs to also include social sustainability, and thus reduce such skewed distribution. In this thesis, I examine if, and in that case to what extent, social sustainability is included and operationalized among planners and politicians within the transport sector in Oslo. In Oslo’s municipal plan social sustainability is highlighted as an important factor for city development. The plan also emphasizes the development of a sustainable transport system and points out that the sector will have large changes in the future. The goal of this thesis is to shed light on what planners and politicians emphasize when using the term sustainable transport, and how social sustainability is included. Qualitative semi-structured interviews are conducted with ten key informants from different parts of the transport sector. The results show that climate and environment is often what planners and politicians first and foremost associate with sustainability, and that not everyone is well known with the term social sustainability. Despite this, all planners and politicians include different social factors in different degrees in their use of the term sustainable transport. The findings are discussed in light of the social sustainability research literature. The most prominent social aspects among planners and politicians in the transport sector is accessibility, equity, social cohesion and participation. The thesis shows that by providing sufficient and equitable access to public transport, the transport sector facilitates the opportunity for individuals and societies to satisfy their needs