A transition towards sustainable strategy making: integrating land use and transport knowledge types

As extensively discussed by other scholars, there is a growing awareness that the integration of land use and transport (LUT) planning is a crucial prerequisite for the transition towards more sustainable transport patterns and urban development that foster interaction between people, support a sustainable business climate and reduces negative effects on the environment and climate. However, in the Netherlands (and in other countries), such integration is scarcely present in daily planning practice. If anything, one can speak of policy coordination rather than ‘integration’; i.e. it is dialogue or information exchange which is geared at avoiding conflicts between projects, but does not seek to establish similar policy goals. Achieving integration in earlier phases of planning (for example, strategy development, goal orientation or visioning) can potentially produce shared policy goals, which would promote mutually reinforcing (instead of obstructing) land use and transport measures. However, for this to happen, a transition on its own is needed.