Author:

Keywords:

L-MOB, strategic planning, infrastructure urbanism, research by design, public transport, mobility and infrastructure planning

Abstract:

The research aims to formulate an answer on the two following complementary questions:1° Is it possible to design an adequately functioning public transport network within the strongly fragmented spatial structure of Flanders?2° Can such a network act as a lever or a strategic instrument to steer spatial developments, and as such restructure the territory in the long term?The doctoral research looks at these two questions from a specific angle. The concept for a steering high-quality regional public transport network is analyzed in a system-approach, in which the main emphasis lies on the mutual interactions between mobility, transport infrastructure and urbanization patterns. This implies a contextual approach: public transport is embedded in a spatial-physical context, as well as in an institutional and policy context.As a direct consequence of this approach, the answer to the research questions is not formulated as a ‘solution’, nor as a blueprint for an idealised resulting situation. Instead there is a search for strategies to intervene on the existing processes within the system.Therefore, the research question is not really: “What should a steering regional public transport network look like, and towards which spatial organization of the Flemish territory can this lead?”, but instead: “In which way can the existing public transport system be modified, so that both the regional and the steering component can be engaged more strongly?”. Or, in other words: “Through which strategies can future spatial developments and the public transport network be organized in synergy with one another?”.By nature, such a challenge transgresses boundaries of scale and disciplines. To tackle this complexity, the research is divided in two main parts, with one joint chapter in the centre linking them.In the first part, the argument for a steering public transport network is built up from a number of relevant disciplines, both from scientific theory, as well as from current practice within society. Throughout this part of the research, the different components of the new network concept take shape.The three chapters successively treat the underlying ratio of the existing public transport network, the different discourses on the urbanism of diffuse spatial patterns (including the role of infrastructure networks) and finally, a number of foreign best practices, which offer potential points of reference for the Flemish context.These different tracks in the first part, all come together in the central chapter. In this chapter, the conditions for a steering regional network to be successful, are distilled on a conceptual level, and subsequently the structural characteristics of the network are identified; nodal connectivity of the network and the focus on a limited number of regional corridors.Once the concept is defined, the different research tracks diverge again. The elaboration of the network concept in terms of spatial impact results in a number of design strategies, divided into three scale levels: the network (and the territory), the individual line within this network (and the corridor around it), and the individual node along a line (and its surrounding tissue).From 2010 until 2013 the KULeuven, amongst others, was involved in the SBO project ORDERin’F (Organizing Rhizomic Development along a Regional pilot network in Flanders). Although there are strong ties between this doctoral research and the ORDERin’F project, there is not an absolute coupling of both – or more precisely: this doctoral research takes a specific position within ORDERin’F.The main focus of the ORDERin’F project was much more on the quantitative aspect, while this research is mainly qualitative. The reason for this was the conviction of a need for a counterbalance to the existing practice in public transport planning, which is mainly quantitative and sectorally isolated. Methodologically, this doctoral research builds upon design research in all three of its manifestations: research by design (research through design explorations), research on design (reference projects and best practices), en research for design (practical applicability for future projects).