Researching the integration and the spatial development potential of regional public transport in a post-urban context

The research project ORDERin’F (which is an acronym for ‘Organizing Rhizomic Development along a Regional pilot network in Flanders’) draws upon two basic questions as research hypothesis: 1° Is it possible to design a public transport network within the strongly fragmented spatial structure of Flanders that enhances significant long term economic, social and environmental benefits for the society at large ? 2° Can this regional network of public transport act as a lever to restructure the suburbanized spatial structure of Flanders in the long term? These questions arise from two ascertainments: the first one being that Flanders has a very dense network of railways, with good intercity connections, and holds a densely developed network of busses for local transport as well. However for trips at medium range distance, which we will call ‘regional’, there is no adequate public transport. Because of the suburbanization though, these ‘regional’ trips increasingly gain importance. In other countries, effective public transport systems have been developed to cover medium range distances. The second ascertainment is a sectoral disconnection between public transport and spatial planning policies in the Flemish context. Apart from station area redevelopments, the spatial structuring potential of public transport is not being capitalized because of this. Furthermore, the scientific rationale that integrates the domains of mobility, urbanism, spatial planning, human ecology and social economics into the conception of a new regional public transport system is lacking today. ORDERin’F aims to fill this knowledge gap by bringing together a multidisciplinary research team in one consortium. Instead of using regional public transport technologies to construct a new network on a basis of demand (following travel needs and known short term developments), it could be set up in a proactive way as an instrument to remodel the diffuse land use and nebular spatial pattern of Flanders. Although part off the research will be devoted to literature study and reference project analysis, the main focus will be on research by design, through the design of a regional public transport network in relation to the transformation of urbanization patterns in three sub-regions in Flanders. Each of these have a distinct macro-structure: - The agglomeration around Leuven is an example of a classical centripetal structure around a city, although the vicinity of the airport as an international hub and the capital of Brussels are taken into account as well. - The trajectory of the Iron Rhine Railway, which is part of a bundle of parallel infrastructures, forms the backbone of a linear sequence of interdependent towns. Together they form a corridor of peripheral urbanization. - The region of Klein-Brabant lacks the centripetal or linear structure of the previous two cases. Instead it is a network of towns and ribbons that don’t have a clear hierarchy between them, located in the central void between the 3 biggest Flemish cities. The PhD dissertation will elaborate on the main challenge of the ORDERin’F research project: Can a diffuse urbanity and a regional public transport work together proactively, and if so, what are crucial factors? In dealing with this question, the dissertation will be of a contemplative and theoretical nature, tying together different aspects of the ORDERin’F project. Incorporating the in- and output of the other research partners involved (regarding mobility, health and sustainability issues, socio-economical aspects, …) as part of the framework thus becomes crucial. This will be attained by incorporation of the overall coordination of the project. Another challenge is finding a match between the theoretical nature of the PhD and the design-oriented approach of the overall research. The three sub-regions of Flanders are considered ‘laboratory set-ups’, in which the main hypothesis is tested and evaluated (through feedback loops with evaluation models assessing mobility and sustainability issues). Since there are no predetermined outcomes for these test cases, the conditions for a successful public transport network will emerge during the design process, thus defining the exact scope of the PhD. However, a number of crucial subthemes have already come forward during the early stages of the research: - The unknown and untapped potential mutual benefits of connecting spatial and public transport planning in the Flemish context. - The dilemma of using public transport to connect existing developments or as a catalyst for new developments. - The difference between current car-based peripheral mobility patterns and the nature of public transport. Solving this mismatch will certainly have spatial retributions: in order to be efficient, regional public transport requires a bundling of origins and destinations. Creating such points of concentration is not in contradiction with the idea of a dispersed city, and could even help Flemish spatial planning ambitions of creating a “deconcentrated bundling”. - The importance of intermodality to crosslink public transport lines as a prerequisite for an efficient service coverage. As a direct effect, the nodes within the network become crucial places, with a potential for attracting functions and services, redefining the meaning of small-scale station areas. - Public transport as a means by which the apparent incompatibility between the diffuse city and sustainability is being tackled. - Different modes of transport have different spatial characteristics. Tailor-made systems can adapt themselves to changing spatial conditions. The three regional designs and their resulting insights into the research questions will not only become the framework for the PhD dissertation; apart from that, they will form the bases for a report that offers policy recommendations to public partners. This means that the goals of the research is twofold: on the one hand, it is a scientific research resulting in an academic output in the form of PhD dissertations, while on the other hand aims to inform transport and spatial planning policy and practice. This duality in finality is a challenge, but also a strength: the relevance of the outcome is a mutually reinforcing combination of academic/scientific and societal interests.

ISBN:978-88-87697-67-4

Publication year:2011