Involving citizens in Luleå’s vision building process for travel and transport

The development process of the Vision Luleå 2050, a vision for a northern Swedish city of 75 000 inhabitants, was initiated in 2007. The overall goal of the plan is to guarantee an attractive, sustainable and growing municipality in the future. As part of the Luleå's vision building process, a wide array of citizen participation methods and tools were used. A report from the planning process in the city presents the possibilities for citizen participation and what the participation has brought to the planning.

Citizens, industries and organisations and the municipality have shared thoughts ever since the first steps of the plan when the major development Directions (Riktningar) of the Vision where discussed. A mobility planning group, that was established to  discuss the mobility and transport part of the vision, developed more spesific programmes based on the general Directions. When the programmes and goals regarding mobility in the city were finalised, citizens and other interest groups were given a possibility to express their thoughts and raise questions. 

In practice the participation was enabled by giving the new plans and programmes much publicity around the city and on the internet. Two exhibitions on the Vision and Programmes (six in total, of which one treats Travel and transport in particular) were set up in the city library and at the city hall. At the exhibitions citizens could become acquainted with the Programmes by printed versions of the entire Vision and Programmes but also through a lighter summary of the main points of the planned goals. Interested stakeholders had also the opportunity give feedback on the plans by leaving written comments in a letterbox.

To attract people to the exhibitions, the space was made colourful and visible by using the same layouts as in the Vision document but in bigger poster formats. Posters about the Programmes and the exhibitions were also placed around the city were many by-passers could notice them, e.g. at the university and at a local gas station. The Vision and its Programmes were also presented at a press conference and a releasing party at the same time as the opening of the exhibitions. The plans were also given much space online e.g. at the municipal homepage and on Facebook, where citizen could comment on them. Comments that were collected both at the exhibitions and electronically were then categorized and stored in an Excel-file in order for responsible programme developers to comment and answer to. The “Report – Review and consultation of programmes for Vision Luleå 2050 (Utlåtande för granskning och samråd av program till Vision Luleå 2050) appendix gathers together the comments from private citizens, companies, parties and communities and the answers from the responsible officers and presents improved and changed Programmes.

A total of 74 comments were made on the Programme on Travel and transport and most of them consider public transport and cycling. The Report states that many of the comments regarded a very detailed planning stage, which is why they may not be included in the goals and plans at this stage. Although, many changes to the Programme were made based on the comments and the Report also points out which changes have been made in the new updated version of the programme on Travel and transport. The Report also includes a list of ideas and comments that cannot be incorporated in the programme and also gives reasons for why this is the case.