Citizen Participation Beyond The Participation Ladder: A Discrete Choice Experiment in a Public Transport Node Context

With the new Environment & Planning Act (Omgevingswet) planned to come into force on the 1st of July 2023, citizen participation is currently relevant in the Dutch public debate. The Association of Dutch Municipalities (Vereniging Nederlandse Gemeenten) deems citizen participation as important because it enables a comprehensive consideration of interests and perspectives. Moreover, it is expected to prevent delays of juridical procedures in the realisation phase of a project. However, the implementation of the new Environment & Planning Act is the responsibility of the government authorities. One governing body struggling with the implementation of citizen participation is the Dutch province of Utrecht, together with its municipalities. The province of Utrecht wants to develop public transport nodes (PTNs). To be able to help municipalities with citizen participation the province has the desire to understand how citizens can best be involved in the development of public transport nodes (PTNs). Scholars studied the participation preferences of citizens, but two shortcomings were identified for the case of PTN development. Firstly, these studies took place in a different context than the context of PTN development. Secondly, these studies examined how citizens themselves want to participate, not how citizens think the government should let citizens participate. Both factors were expected to influence the participation preferences of citizens.This problem background, the corresponding scope, and knowledge gap lead to the main research question of this study: How do citizens weigh different attributes of citizen participation regarding the policy-making process by the province of Utrecht in the context of public transport node development?The main method to answer this research question is a discrete choice experiment (DCE). Firstly, literature research was conducted to identify relevant attributes of citizen participation. This resulted in five attributes: the Participation Moment, the Participation Selection Method, the Mode of Participation, the Extent of Influence, and the Costs. The literature research also established the preliminary levels of all except the Costs attribute. Secondly, to establish the final levels semistructured interviews were conducted with nine policymakers and civil servants. To establish the levels of the Costs attribute market research was conducted. Nine companies specialised in citizen participation were contacted. Ultimately, the levels of the Costs attribute were based on the information of one company but were verified by public sources and interview results. Thirdly, the information from the literature research, interviews, and market research was synthesised. Furthermore, for all except the Costs attribute, level descriptions were developed which explained the level and, if applicable, suited it to the case of PTN development. Fifthly, a survey was developed which included an opening statement, an introduction to the attributes and levels, ten choice sets with two participation scenarios and one No Participation scenario, and eight closing questions about demographics. In the choice sets, respondents were asked which participation scenario they would prefer for the province of Utrecht to choose...