Residents’ responses to proposed highway projects: Exploring the role of governmental information provision

Abstract

Despite increased efforts to actively consult residents in highway infrastructure planning to i.a. increase acceptance of plans, the involvement of most residents is passive and limited to receiving information. By means of multivariate regression analysis, this paper explores the role of governmental information provision in residents' responses towards highway project proposals, measured by the expected change in residential satisfaction i.e. the match between housing needs and conditions, as a consequence of those projects. We also pay specific attention to permeability of and satisfaction with information provided. The analyses are based on questionnaire data collected among 484 residents living close to two announced plans for highway adjustment in the Netherlands.We found indications that residents who received information from a governmental project team are more satisfied with information compared to residents who only received information from other sources. In its turn, a higher level of information satisfaction was associated with more positive expectations with regard to changes in their residential satisfaction, although other contextual variables were also explanatory. Receiving information from the project team was mainly associated with a closer residential proximity to the highway where project team distribution efforts were also more intensive. However, we observed clear personal and project-specific differences in the number of information sources received and the likelihood to attend information meetings. The latter was also associated with more negative expectations towards residential satisfaction change. This indicates a clear difference in characteristics between the more actively involved group and the silent majority.An important implication of this study is that information provided by project teams seems to increase acceptance of plans, via its contribution to residents' information satisfaction. Nevertheless, only a minority of residents appeared satisfied with the information they received. Therefore, it seems worthwhile for planning agencies to pay more attention to people who currently appear less satisfied with the information provided. These include older residents, residents with fewer social contacts and families with children. In addition, the results indicate clear differences in expected satisfaction change between more actively and more passively involved residents. This may be a reason for governments to not only focus on opinions grasped from information meetings, but to specifically take into account the opinions of the more passive 'silent' majority.

A New Approach in Organizational Psychology: Self-Expectation for Organizational Improvement and a Scale Development Study

“…A similar situation applies to the concepts of "positive expectations towards future" or "positive future expectation". It is seen that this concept has been used in different research areas and conceptually in a totally different contexts such as the degree of positiveness of the individual's expectations about his / her own personal future (Callina et al 2014;Eryılmaz, 2011;Schmid et al, 2011;Zhou and Lu, 2011), positive expectations about the future firm competitions (Hansen, 2003) or the positive impact of the project team on obtaining information (Hamersma et al, 2016). The literature review and their results revealed that these two concepts (at least in the sources that are put forward and used) are used only superficially without any definition; in other words, they do not have a conceptual framework and a systematized theoretical infrastructure.…”

“…In some of the studies in the literature on similar concepts, it is noteworthy that organizational management interferes with the expectations of individuals consciously (Portoghese et al, 2012;Hamersma et al, 2016). However, SEOI represents the expectations that totally occur spontaneously in the mind of the individual without any conscious and planned intervention by the organization management, and their hopes on certain issues regarding the future.…”

The impact of protected values on acceptance and procedural fairness of public projects

“…Residents' responses to government project proposals depend on their perceptions of its benefits and costs, and the tradeoffs between them (Hamersma, Heinen, Tillema, & Arts, 2016).…”

Understanding resident satisfaction with involvement in highway planning: in-depth interviews during a highway planning process in the Netherlands

“…Regardless of the provided involvement activities, studies also show that residents vary in their preference for degree of involvement; some groups of residents prefer to be more deeply involved in government decision-making (Bickerstaff and Walker 2001;Diduck and Sinclair, 2002;Hamersma et al 2016). In addition, research suggests that contextual factors such as cultural aspects, historical events, and personal (socioeconomic or attitudinal) factors may influence the way in which involvement activities of governments are perceived by residents (Luyet et al 2012;Stenseke 2009;Irvin and Stansbury 2004;Chi, Xu, and Xue 2014;Webler, Tuler, and Krueger 2001;Hanna 2016;Hamersma et al 2016). To better understand the effectiveness of involvement activities with residents, it therefore also seems important to account for personal contextual factors.…”