Extract
Innovation without change?
Abstract
Since the 1980s, urban transportation has been a recurring problem posed to public authorities. The problems linked to this policy field are very diverse and concerned economic, environmental, technical, fiscal, institutional and democratic questions. Local authorities are facing a situation in which they have to modernize their policies through innovative practices. This article deals with the question of innovation in five European cities (Geneva, Lyon, Naples, Munich and Stuttgart) and evaluates their capacity to innovate. Introduction The question of urban transportation figures prominently in contemporary political discussion. It arouses numerous political and technical controversies which are not limited to European states, as witnessed by the demonstration in Mexico City, April 11-14, 2000, organised by the association "Cooperation for the Development and Improvement of Urban and Peri-urban Transportation" (CODATU), which brought together more than 500 participants from 40 countries to address the problems of "Urban transportation and environment." (1) Since the 1980s, it has been a recurring problem, which public authorities seem to have difficulty dealing with. Decisions are made--certain ambitious (especially in budgetary terms) programs are launched--yet this policy issue regularly looms large on the public agenda in Europe. The present article seeks to analyse initiatives undertaken in this area of public policy and to examine technical, institutional and procedural innovations in five European cities: Geneva, Lyon, Naples, Munich and Stuttgart (2). The comparative approach utilised here aims at bringing to light the socio-political and institutional elements at the heart of processes of innovation. In order to leave no door unopened, our approach is deliberately broad. Innovation is understood to involve all modifications of an institutional, technical, judicial or procedural nature whose explicit function is to de-compartmentalise exclusively sector-based and uni-modal approaches to urban transportation. Public policies in the area we are concerned with are, above all, sector-based, thereby reproducing a manner of public action on which modern states are built (Jobert, Muller 1987). In concrete terms, the issue of urban transportation has long been encapsulated in the sum total of measures taken in domains such as urban roadways, downtown parking, public transport and two-wheeled vehicles. None of this has involved research into true synergies among these sector-based decisions. In many cases, faced with increasing private automobile use for urban transportation, the classic response of public authorities has been to try to reverse the trend through heavy investment in mass public transit (subways, streetcars, regional railroad transit system, etc.) For more than ten years it has been known that this type of policy does not suffice, resolving neither the crisis in public transportation nor the problems of urban congestion and air pollution (Madre, 1987). Experts and scientist...See the full content of this document
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