Urban transport policy transfer: “bottom-up” and “top-down” perspectives

The paper provides insights into the urban transport policy transfer process, focusing particularly on the transfer of the transport policy within the EU. The themes of the paper are structured according to five of the “Dolowitz and Marsh questions”: what is transferred?; why do actors engage in policy transfer?; who are the key actors involved in the policy transfer process?; from where are the lessons drawn?; and what restricts or facilitates the policy transfer process? The methodological approach taken for considering each question involves two steps. Firstly, a “bottom-up” step considers the views of policy transfer from a “city perspective”, for which use is made of results from interviews recently carried out within the EU project “Transport Research Knowledge Centre” (TRKC). These interviews were intended to ascertain the information needs of seven “representatives” of European cities, all of whom were involved in the Cities Reference Group of the EU project “Citymobil”. These seven cities have widely varying characteristics in terms of size and geographical location (across Europe). By discussing information needs, the interviewees provided many insights into the transport policy transfer process. Secondly, a “top-down” step considers the policy transfer questions from an “EU perspective’; use here is made of various transport policy documents published by the European Commission (EC). For each of the five questions, “bottom-up” and “top-down” perspectives are examined and compared. The final section of the paper draws conclusions, providing a number of recommendations to both city authorities and the EU on how urban transport policy transfer might be enhanced in the future.

Research Highlights
► Evidence is provided on "city perspectives" regarding transport policy transfer.
► The "world of information" is becoming increasingly complex for urban policy-makers.
► More thought needs to be given concerning the language of transport policy transfer.
► A hierarchy of cities was identified with respect to "city image".
► The EU needs a clearer definition of "subsidiarity" for urban transport policy.