Backtracking Auckland?: Technical and Communicative Reason in Metropolitan Transport Planning

Abstract

Communicative planning has helped to illuminate the role of technical reason in planning processes. Transport planning has had little exposure to the communicative perspective. This paper examines transport planning in Auckland, New Zealand, from a communicative planning perspective. The paper argues that the historical dominance of technical reason has biased strategic transport policy towards supporting automobiles over more sustainable modes. The paper demonstrates the dominance of technical rationality in transport strategy-making processes and institutions in contrast to expressed public preferences. The paper concludes by arguing that the achievement of greater sustainability in Auckland's transport, and elsewhere, depends on a greater communicative emphasis in regional planning and transport strategy making.