Institutional barriers to sustainability : a case study of transportation planning in Vancouver, British Columbia
Creators: name: Curry, John Allan
Publisher: name: University of British Columbia
Year: 2009

description: Significant changes must occur in human interaction with the natural environment if the world is to move towards a state of sustainability. While the need for such change is widely recognized, planning in many sectors continues to lead to development that is unsustainable. Urban transportation planning is one such sector. Little attention has been given by sustainability-oriented researchers to the problem of resistance to change. Conversely, little attention has been given by organizational change theorists to local government planning organizations’ indifference to the sustainability imperative. As a consequence, while a great deal of research has examined the need to control the automobile in urban areas, little has been written about why such control still does not happen -- even when policies call for it. Vancouver, British Columbia is recognized for its progressive attempts to move towards sustainability. This progressive situation creates an environment in which barriers impeding change towards sustainability can be studied. While Vancouver’s municipal and regional policies explicitly call for a reversal in priorities which have traditionally favoured automobiles over transit, bicycles and pedestrians, operational decisions still favour the automobile. Most significantly, roads continue to be widened and new expressways are built to accommodate more automobile traffic. A qualitative case study approach was used to inquire into transportation planning in Vancouver. An analysis of documents and of interviews with key informants suggests that a system of institutional barriers exists which has structural, cultural, and human resource dimensions. Unsustainability is a function of organizational inertia which is not only supported by, but also takes advantage of and fosters, the wider political individualistic culture. Specifically, there are several reasons for the disjunction between Vancouver’s transportation policies and the decisions which are being made in transportation infrastructure development: an institutional structure which separates land-use and transportation planning, impedes comprehensive decision-making, and lacks mechanisms to publicize and assess cumulative environmental impacts; the existence of an organizational culture which seems to condone the use of subversive tactics to promote an informal transportation plan which perpetuates traditional, automobile-oriented values, beliefs and assumptions; and the lack of conceptual knowledge and skills necessary for organizational change to occur. The practical implications of these findings are that, in cases like Vancouver’s, sustainability can be fostered by three categories of mutually reinforcing actions: education, structural change, and planning practice. The actions in each category can build momentum towards second-order change using a social learning process to overcome societal values, beliefs and assumptions which promote an automobile-dominated transportation system.