Examensarbete

Nowadays, cities are facing air and noise pollution due to the high amount of motorized transport. This impacts the inhabitants’ health negatively. Thus, scholars and planners suggest a shift towards a more sustainable urban transport scheme, including the integration of biking and walking with public transport. This is part of active intermodality – the combination of at least two modes in one single trip – which is crucial for facilitating that shift successfully. This results in the aim of this thesis which is to understand planning practices for active intermodality and aims at answering the research question: How can active intermodality be improved?This thesis is a comparative case study of Stuttgart/Germany and Gothenburg/Sweden. Their comparison will offer valuable insights into the planning processes due to their differing organizational and legal structures. To answer the research questions, the methods used were a literature review to understand the relevance and term of intermodality; a policy document analysis to see if the planning processes in both cities include intermodal measures and to find out who is responsible; and lastly, qualitative semi-structured interviews with responsible planners to further understand the implementation of active intermodality. The literature highlights that active intermodality can be best planned through an integrative planning approach, because many actors are involved. Therefore, the theory of collaboration was used to analyze the collaboration between planners in both cities.