Political Participation in Transport Governance

There is a growing literature on public participation in transport governance. However, most studies focus on organized, deliberative planning processes managed by government actors. This paper addresses another type of participation, namely various aspects of political participation and channels used to influence politics. It is a perspective well established in the political science literature, but minor studied in the field of transport. The paper is based on a literature review, which identified 68 articles that contained examples of political participation used to engage in transport issues. Three channels are recurring a) voting b) expressing views on-line and 3) social movement activities including protests and community opposition. The paper presents a framework discussing how the findings can be linked to governance. This is a first attempt to conceptualized political participation within the transport governance literature. It is concluded that the literature within this field is scattered, and more studies are need.