Figure 1
Three Spheres of Transformation change involved in driving down emissions from transport. When integrated or coordinated together, these support outcomes for sustainability.
Sources: O’Brien (2018); O’Brien & Sygna (2013); Revez et al. (2022).
Figure 2
Distribution of climate action and transportation documents using the Three Spheres of Transformation scale in increments of four years from 2010 to 2022.
Figure 3
Barriers described by respondents. For the top six barriers, the Personal sphere comprised 59%, the Political sphere was 18% and the Practical sphere 23% of responses.
Table 1
Contributing factors to the ‘how’ of successful implementation of climate action plans (CAPs) in transportation were sharing, relationships and trust.
| Part of the agreement is that the cities are going to share all of it. And so what you have happening here in British Columbia is extraordinary, because [City of] Vancouver typically was one of the ones to go first—and they would do something big—and then they would say [to the 22 other municipalities], ‘You can have everything from us: you can have our policy design or economic analysis you can have how we got the Council on board and the public on board and whatnot.’ […] Maybe one of them leads and puts the R&D [research and development] into it, so they all don’t have to do it. [They] come up with the whole plan. They roll it out, they pilot it, and then they share and then everybody else adopts it, and now it’s spread. It’s not just Vancouver, [it’s also] city of Richmond. […] So that happened with step code [to reduce emissions from buildings]. 15 municipalities putting in step-code policies, overnight, because they shared with the one who went first. (respondent, non-profit, 2022) |
| It’s about relationship building. But it’s not just about buy-in for the policy, part of it is, [but] in order to solve this problem, it can’t just be a bunch of experts around a table, we need people with local, lived experience in a community. People are experts about the community that they live in; they’re experts about their daily life, what gets in their way and what brings them joy. (respondent, non-profit, 2022) |
| It’s actually [about] trusting people: you’re going to get ideas that you don’t think of yourself that are in the transformational category. (respondent, non-profit, 2022) |
Figure 4
Key components involved in successful implementation.
Table 2
To support truly sustainable alternatives for mobility, respondents noted the need for further integration.
| [We are] starting a project, where we’re doing some technical work, but also trying to figure out what the public opinion research and public engagement facets of that would be [in a more integrative way]. (respondent, public sector, 2022) |
| These [public transit] projects […] that are, multi-billion-dollar projects, they pay dividends over time and they have kind of knock-on effects that are actually difficult to quantify, or really forecast in building the business case for things like that. And [the knock-on effects] all build on each other. Which is, one of the things that frustrates me a lot with regional public transit planning discussions: it’s always sort of like pitting one project against another. When the reality is that they’re stronger together: it’s a two plus two equals five scenario. (respondent, practitioner–academic, 2022) |
| People don’t separate these things out from one another; if you are concerned about climate change, you’re as interested in transportation, as you are in whatever else, right, you just want to kind of get the pieces pulled together. […] My perspective on why the implementation is so challenging is that it’s really fragmented for people. […] How are you going to start bringing this together? (respondent, non-profit, 2022) |