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Transport and land use planning are in a state of flux. Projects face increased technical, social, financial, political and legal complexities while the conventional project planning approach is struggling to deal with these complexities. As a result, many projects fail to be completed in time and on budget. To deal with this issue, alternative planning approaches are developed in planning theory and literature. On the one hand, a more communicative project planning approach has been developed. On the other, a more programme-oriented planning approach has been suggested. While the former trend has inspired many empirical studies, the latter trend has received less research attention. Therefore, in this article, we focus on the trend towards a more programme-oriented planning approach. The objective of this article is to gain insight into how programmes impact project performance in light of project complexities. To this end, we conducted a case study research into how two different programmes – the Urgent Approach Programme and the National Collaboration Programme on Air Quality – impact the delivery of the national highway project A4 between Burgerveen-Leiden in the Netherlands. We used desk research and conducted 20 semi-structured interviews on project and programme level with various stakeholders. Our analysis reveals that programmes do not really influence technical and social complexities. These are predominantly affected by the introduction of a communicative project planning approach. Through restructuring project-specific political discussions and providing solutions to legal issues by explicitly connecting multiple projects to each other, programmes can be an effective means to deal with political and legal complexities.

The competitive dialogue (CD) procurement procedure aims to structure and facilitate public–private interaction in procurement. In this article we examine the CD procedures of four complex Dutch road infrastructure projects and explore how the mix in public–private interaction between the three governance strategies of cooperation, competition, and coordination is conditioned by various external influences. We found that public authorities' strict legal coordination can structure the CD process, but may divert attention from the required interaction on project‐specific complexities. Combined with private contractors' focus on competition, this does not stimulate public–private cooperation. We conclude that CD is a promising tool for facilitating public–private interaction, but, in practice, the optimal mix of governance strategies is not achieved. We recommend strengthening cooperation by encouraging public and private tender organizations to collaboratively search for opportunities to deal with complexity in planning.

Using data collected among 742 respondents, this article aims at gaining greater insight into (i) the interaction between face-to-face (F2F) and electronic contacts, (ii) the influence of information content and relational distance on the communication mode/ service choice and (iii) the influence of relational and geographical distance, in addition to other factors, on the frequency of F2F and electronic contacts with relatives and friends. The results show that the frequency of F2F contacts is positively correlated with that for electronic communication, pointing at a complementarity effect.With respect to information content and relational distance, we find, on the basis of descriptive analyses, that synchronous modes/services (F2F and telephone conversations) are used more for urgent matters and that asynchronous modes (in particular email) become more influential as the relational distance increases. Finally, ordered probit analyses confirm that the frequency of both F2F and electronic communication declines when the physical and relational distance to social network members increases.

Using stated preference data collected among Dutch respondents, this paper explores the effects of kilometre and cordon charges on the decision to move house or change jobs. About 5 per cent of the respondents indicated a reasonably high probability of moving house if a road pricing measure were to be implemented; with respect to job change, this was about 13.5 per cent. On the basis of an ordered probit analysis, it was possible to identify several important variables that help to explain these figures. The variables that affect people's decision to move house or change jobs are more or less the same. Somewhat unexpectedly, the price level of the road pricing measure does not seem to have a significant impact.

Road pricing policies are, after a cooling down period of a couple of years, again prominently back on the political agenda in the Netherlands. But also in the period of less political interest, research in the field of (road) pricing policies continued in other countries as well as in the Netherlands. Most research literature focuses on the economic and acceptability aspects of pricing policies. The geographical aspects of transport pricing however have received much less attention so far. This paper focuses on possible influences of road pricing policies on residential and work location choice of households. The paper starts with analyzing the importance of transport and location related variables in residential location decisions, when the choice to relocate itself has been made. For this analysis data from a stated choice experiment is used. Choice screens within the experiment consisted of two alternatives. In total, per respondent nine choice screens were shown. Transport related variables within the experiment were commuting travel time, fuel cost and toll cost. The location related variables consisted of the residential environment, the number of bedrooms and the monthly housing costs. Analysis of the results gives insight into the importance of for example toll costs on the final location choice when a decision to relocate itself has already been made. However this type of analysis does not give insight into the number of people who are actually considering changing location when a form of road pricing is introduced. Therefore the second part of the paper continues with analyzing the extent to which people are likely to relocate due to road pricing. The effect of different types of pricing measures and pricing levels on this inclination to relocate are examined. For the analysis, data from a stated preference questionnaire is used. The paper finally concludes with an examination of important explaining variables for moving house or changing job due to road pricing. Some important findings are for example that older people (above 40 years of age), people with a higher income and persons getting a travel cost compensation from their employer are less willing to move due to a pricing measure. People with a higher education level however are more willing to relocate.

This study investigates resident satisfaction with provided involvement activities during highway planning processes, with particular attention given to the planned Southern Ring Road highway project in Groningen, the Netherlands. In-depth interviews with 38 residents living in the project area reveal important themes contributing to satisfaction. Satisfaction with passive information activities is motivated by the extent to which information addresses concerns, but (dis)trust in government and other information sources also plays a role. For residents preferring to obtain additional information, perceived access to such information and the extent to which it reduces concerns are also important to satisfaction. Finally, for residents who would rather participate actively, satisfaction is motivated by their perceived access to participation activities and the sense of being heard. Study results show how residents' evaluations of the themes underpinning involvement satisfaction are based on their perceptions of actual project team activities and contextual factors.

The perception of highway nuisance i.e. noises, air pollution and barrier-effects, is associated with negative effects on health and quality of life. This study aims to gain a deeper understanding of the development of highway nuisance perception among residents. Interviews were conducted with residents in 32 households living along the Southern Ring Road, a highway which crosses various neighbourhoods in the city of Groningen, the Netherlands. Various themes emerged from the interviews which were important in the development of residents' perceptions of highway nuisance. For example, our interviews showed that residents who had not explicitly chosen to live next to a highway were more acutely affected by the negative externalities of that highway later. Perceived environmental changes, often due to governmental actions such as new/extended noise barriers, removal of trees and newly constructed buildings causing noise reflection, also played a role in the interviewees' development of nuisance perception. In addition, the interviewees indicated that expectations about future highway developments influenced their current perception of highway nuisance, which could be described as anticipation effects. Interviewees also indicated that recent information about the potentially harmful effects of air pollution increased their concerns about living near the highway. A final theme discussed were differences in the extent to which residents were able to develop coping strategies to reduce the amount of highway nuisance perception. The participants' experiences indicate the importance of further integration between the planning of highway infrastructure and the broader environment in order to reduce nuisance perceptions and improve residential quality near highways.

Despite increased efforts to actively consult residents in highway infrastructure planning to i.a. increase acceptance of plans, the involvement of most residents is passive and limited to receiving information. By means of multivariate regression analysis, this paper explores the role of governmental information provision in residents' responses towards highway project proposals, measured by the expected change in residential satisfaction i.e. the match between housing needs and conditions, as a consequence of those projects. We also pay specific attention to permeability of and satisfaction with information provided. The analyses are based on questionnaire data collected among 484 residents living close to two announced plans for highway adjustment in the Netherlands. We found indications that residents who received information from a governmental project team are more satisfied with information compared to residents who only received information from other sources. In its turn, a higher level of information satisfaction was associated with more positive expectations with regard to changes in their residential satisfaction, although other contextual variables were also explanatory. Receiving information from the project team was mainly associated with a closer residential proximity to the highway where project team distribution efforts were also more intensive. However, we observed clear personal and project-specific differences in the number of information sources received and the likelihood to attend information meetings. The latter was also associated with more negative expectations towards residential satisfaction change. This indicates a clear difference in characteristics between the more actively involved group and the silent majority. An important implication of this study is that information provided by project teams seems to increase acceptance of plans, via its contribution to residents' information satisfaction. Nevertheless, only a minority of residents appeared satisfied with the information they ...

Road pricing policies have been a subject of research for many decades. Even though until now examples of actual implication in the real world are limited, many different road-pricing measures have been considered, both in literature as well as in the political debate in several countries. However, most literature focuses on economic aspects, more or less ignoring spatial consequences. In this paper we will concentrate on the spatial effects of pricing policy and introduce the typical geographic concept of accessibility into the discussion about pricing policy. The paper firstly gives some backgrounds of pricing policies. Some objectives of road pricing in general are given. Furthermore some examples of already implemented pricing measures in countries all over the world are mentioned. General literature concerning pricing policies aims specifically on economic effects. This is mainly because of the typical economic aspects, which can be found in the theory of pricing policy such as the pricing of a scarce good as infrastructure capacity, related to time aspects. Also studies concerning acceptability of road pricing policies are discussed, because acceptance plays an important role in the implementation of pricing policies. The paper shortly addresses some of the economic and acceptability related literature. But the literature review of the paper focuses specifically on the geographical aspects of pricing policies. These geographical aspects have received much less attention so far although road-pricing measures may cause important spatial effects. Therefore the second part of the paper focuses on these geographical aspects. A specific research field in geography is accessibility. Accessibility is a concept that connects infrastructure and land-use. The research fields of accessibility and pricing policies in isolation are well elaborated. However, the link between road pricing policies and accessibility (measures) forms a new research field. The paper explains the importance of the concept of accessibility. In practice accessibility can be computed with accessibility measures. These measures form quantifications of accessibility. Different types of accessibility measures exist differing in concept as well as complexity. All these measures have in common that transport costs are not included at all or at least not in a realistic way. After explaining the concept of accessibility different categories of accessibility measures are explained and their general advantages and disadvantages are given. Furthermore possibilities to adapt or improve accessibility measures are discussed. After this discussion the actual link between road pricing policies and accessibility measures is explained. The discussion begins with the presentation of a conceptual model of the accessibility (and spatial) effects of road pricing. Subsequently an observation is made where current measures fall short to include pricing policy costs in a realistic way. This observation will lead to the determination of directions for improvement. Besides the general possibilities to adjust different accessibility measures, each measure is specifically evaluated on the ability to improve the way of describing accessibility effects of road pricing.

Road infrastructure projects are increasingly placed in their wider land-use context because of the functional relationships they have with surrounding areas. These more inclusive area-oriented planning processes typically involve a complex of interdependent but institutionally fragmented actors. Effective operationalization of collaborative strategies therefore remains difficult. Various policies introduce spatial design efforts to the infrastructure planning processes as a strategy to deal with these issues. This paper explores experiences in the Netherlands that have placed spatial design in vital positions in the process. An exploration of literature from the fields of spatial design, planning, and geography teaches us that design approaches, in such cases, may be applied to serve as a communicative modus that fosters dialogue, creativity, and eventually an inclusive and shared story about an area's future. We interviewed designers experienced in serving that role and asked them whether and how such objectives are achieved. Consecutively, in order to come to practical lessons for exploitation of the merits indicated by the interviewees, we studied two projects that the interviewees considered best practices. We conclude that a combination of technical and relational design can effectively help a fragmented group of actors to find a shared and meaningful story and make integral choices on infrastructure projects, framed within a wider area's development. Ensuring effective iterations between technical and relational design requires institutionalization of the coordinative capacities of design, as well as the right mindset among participants. This way, the employment of such design approaches facilitates effective operationalization of collaborative governance at the infrastructure/land-use interface.

Network effects and spatial spillovers are intrinsic impacts of transport infrastructure. Network effects imply that an improvement in a particular link in a network generates effects in many other elements of that network, while spillover effects can be defined as those impacts occurring beyond the regions where the actual transport investment is made. These two related effects entail a redistribution of impacts among regions, and their omission from road planning is argued to cause the systematic underestimation of the profitability of transport projects and therefore the public financing they require. However, traditional transport appraisal methodologies fail to consider network and spillover effects. In this study we focus on the spillover impacts of two highway sections planned in the city region of Eindhoven, located in the Dutch province of Noord-Brabant, a region with traffic congestion problems. The new road infrastructure will be financed mainly by national government, the province and the urban region of Eindhoven ('Stadsregio Eindhoven'), which consists of 21 municipalities. We measure the benefits of the additional links in terms of travel time savings and the accompanying monetary gains. The results show that important spillovers occur in those municipalities close to the new links. The province of Noord-Brabant will benefit the most. We also found important spillovers in the province of Limburg. This latter province will benefit from reduced travel times without contributing financially to the establishment of the analysed new road links.