Work

Public support of transport policy instruments, perceived transport quality and satisfaction with democracy. What is the relationship?

Year: 2018

Type: article

Abstract: Lack of public support is regarded as a major barrier for implementing restrictive transport policy instruments. Recent studies have therefore analyzed factors explaining variations in public support and examined strategies to increase support of restrictive policy measures. However, few have analyzed whether there is an actual relationship between transportation policies and political legitimacy. This article thus makes two main contributions to the literature. First, it explores whether there is a relationship between support of restrictive instruments and political legitimacy to study the political implications of introducing such instruments. The results show that citizens opposing restrictive measures, such as local road tolls, are more dissatisfied with the performance of local democracy. The effect also appears to be mediated through citizens evaluation of politicians’ and how they evaluate governmental performance at the local level. Second, the article analyzes the importance of transportation policies in particular for local political legitimacy. The results show that citizens dissatisfied with the quality of services within the transport sector are also more dissatisfied with the performance of local democracy.

Source: Transportation Research Part A Policy and Practice

DOI: 10.1016/j.tra.2018.09.010

Author: Petter Christiansen

Institutions: University of Oslo, Institute of Transport Economics

Language: English

Topic: Transportation Planning and Optimization

Subfield: Transportation

Field: Social Sciences

Domain: Social Sciences

SDGs: Peace, justice, and strong institutions, Sustainable cities and communities, Industry, innovation and infrastructure

Open Access status: hybrid

Estimated APC paid: $3,270