University of California Transportation

Center
University of California

Title:
Planning Styles in Conflict: The Metropolitan Transportation Commission
Author:
Innes, Judith E., University of California Transportation Center
Gruber, Judith, University of California Transportation Center
Publication Date:
06-01-2005
Series:
Earlier Faculty Research
Permalink:
http://escholarship.org/uc/item/6pf9k6sk
Abstract:
After a 5-year study of transportation planning in the San Francisco Bay Area, we have concluded
that the contentiousness we observed in the process was due in great part to differences in
participants styles of planning and not solely to disagreements over desired outcomes. Each style
involved different assumptions about information, public participation, and what a good plan is like,
as well as about the process of planning. Practitioners of each tended to believe deeply in their
approach and to regard with suspicion, if not hostility, those practicing different styles. We identified
four coexisting styles, which we label technical/bureaucratic, political influence, social movement,
and collaborative. Each style tended to be associated with different types of outcomes, though this
was not explicit in discussion. The political planners divided resources among players, whereas
the collaborative and the social movement planners were associated with strategies designed to
benefit the region as a whole.
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