The Procedure Of Public Participation In Policy-making Of Urban Transportation

With the development of economy and society,the increasing number of urban population leads to traffic demand continues to increase.In recent years,many urban traffic problems gradually appear,such as traffic congestion,environmental pollution and so on.Policy-marking of urban transportation will be directly related to the vital interests of citizens,and also related to urban transportation resources allocation and the long term development of urban traffic.The public should be in the right way involved in the policy-making of urban transportation as stakeholders,on behalf of the public interest and promote science in traffic policy.Firstly,this paper reviews the literature of public participation of transportation both domestic and foreign.The social contract theory,public choice theory,procedural justice theory and game theory established the theoretical foundation of public participation.After summarizing the experience of the procedure of public participation in urban transportation in Germany,United States and Britain,combing with analysis two cases of Stockholm congestion charging and Seoul public transport reform,this paper founds reasons for their success.This paper found that government and the public are lack of direct communication through mapping and analyzing the current decision-making procedure in our city.There are several problems of public participation in our country,for example lack of procedural regulations,the participation is not deep and wide enough,public participation awareness is not strong.This paper proposes the procedure of public participation in policy-making of urban transportation.The procedure can be divided into 7 stages:to raise questions,diagnosis problems,propose solutions,decision-making,program delivery,evaluation and feedback.The level of public participation from the bottom to high is divided into notification,consultation,negotiation,interaction and mobilization.Based on the case of Beijing public transport fares reform in 2014,this paper analysis the process of it and give the evaluation.Beijing public transport fares reform was a successful case,however lack of the evaluation and feedback mechanism.Beijing congestion charge policy should include the complete public participation procedure.In the early stage of congestion charge,traffic department should launch a social investigation,collect public suggestions from different ways,and pay attention to the evaluation and feedback stage in order to improve the support and understanding of congestion charge.This paper summarizes the conclusion and give 5 suggestions.The government should establish direct communication channels of government and the public,establish the legal system of public participation of transportation,design different kinds of public participation program specification,reasonably choosing the way of public participation,and improve the consciousness and ability of the public.