Sustainable transport development relies on addressing all three dimensions of sustainability; economic, environmental and social. But transport appraisals seem to be mostly focused on the addressing aspects related to the economic and environmental dimensions, while the social dimension receives little attention. It is from this general conception that the objective of the project is to identify how the social aspect is understood and operationalised in relation to the planning process for two Danish light rail cases.
The cases are analysed through a qualitative study design with a theoretical framework focusing on the concept of sustainability, the sustainable mobilities paradigm and definition of social impacts. The purpose of the qualitative study design is to identify how the social dimension have been operationalised and to gain an understanding of how practitioners perceive and understand sustainability, the social dimension and potential social impacts of light rail systems.
The findings show that the two light rail cases have had different approaches to how sustainability have been used in the planning process, but that both cases can be considered as a part of a sustainable mobility approach. The findings furthermore show that there is a bottom-up acknowledged of the importance of evaluating social aspects, but that social aspects are yet to be acknowledged from a top-down perspective.