Planning support systems (PSSs) are intended to facilitate relevant steps in planning processes; however, the academic evaluation of PSSs reveals many bottlenecks precluding a widespread use of these systems. A central weakness is the lack of communication between PSS developers (focusing on technical issues) and potential PSS users. Other academic fields such as knowledge management and technological innovation recognised similar bottlenecks years ago. On the basis of methods proposed in these fields, a new process architecture for the development of a PSS is proposed. Through a dialogue in which PSS developers and potential users discuss and use the PSS, existing tools, instruments, and models are refined and improved to be more useful to their potential users. The focus shifts away from the development of a technically more sophisticated support system, towards a process of PSS development which is intertwined with the planning process itself. This process architecture is called mediated planning support (MPS). We explore what can be learned from other academic domains and enquire about the applicability of these findings to PSS development. In Amsterdam the Department of Transport wanted to transform their transportation model into a land-use and transport PSS and their work illustrates how such a process architecture can link PSS developers and users in planning practice. We discuss the concepts behind MPS and use the case of Amsterdam to visualise its workings, lastly offering hypotheses on the method and suggestions for further research.
For decades, Dutch transport policies have been dominated by two themes: congestion and environment. Extensive research has revealed planning concepts that can improve the performance of transportation networks and reduce the environmental impact of traffic and transport by using spatial planning policies. Such concepts were introduced in the Dutch policy realm with little success, and there remains a lack of cooperation between the fields of traffic and transport and spatial planning and between various levels of government–-at the cost of accessibility and the environment. The recent shift in Dutch traffic and spatial policies to decentralize power and policy implementation from the national to the regional level might encourage regional transport and spatial planners to integrate the policy realms toward cooperation or even to collaboration. This article describes the design of training for transport engineers and spatial planners to improve their abilities to cooperate successfully and to work more effectively on the regional themes of accessibility and environmental impact. The training focuses on projects that can be characterized as cross-boundary cooperation. The training is based on the theories and practices of the learning organization and on a constructivist perspective on learning.
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