The Institutional Conditions for a Sustainable Transport Policy in Urban Areas

A few years ago, the ten largest towns in Norway worked out local transportation plans. The aim of the plans were to improve the environment and the transport. The plans held, among other strategies, also an environmental strategy. The focus of the project is whether the institutional conditions make it possible to implement the environmental strategy or not. The findings is that the laws, the financing systems, the planning- and budgeting systems, and the way the transportation sector is organised, put obstacles to the implementation. A case-study in one of the towns, Drammen, show that the institutional conditions are of significant importance for the implementation of the prefered environmental strategy in this city, but that also political priorities count.