While only one truck-bicycle accident has been recorded at the location thus far, the observations of the truck-bicycle encounters revealed several areas of safety concern. From the safety analysis and subsequent identification of safety risks, it is obvious that encounters between street users (namely cyclists and delivery trucks in this case) were not considered in either the site or street infrastructure design. Given the expected volumes of trucks and bicycles on this street section, it seems obvious in retrospect that the coexistence between these user groups should have been examined in more detail during planning phases. To better understand why this issue was not considered, the planning process associated with the building design and construction was investigated.
As part of a larger project, Sustainable Urban Logistics Plans in Norway (NORSULP) [22], empirical data was collected in order to better understand and map the planning process. For this specific study, we base our findings on: (1) a study of how laws and thematic policy plans for the shared urban space interact with current protocols for freight delivery, and (2) semi-structured interviews with stakeholders in the case, including representatives from the local authorities, e.g., heads and managers of urban planning and case officers, as well as non-governmental representatives, e.g. project owners, architects, and the freight industry. These interviews focused on the different perspectives, priorities, involvement, and interaction the different stakeholders had throughout the specific case leading up to the present situation. Publicly-available case documents and correspondence were used to identify the interviewees, who were selected based upon their roles and experience within urban logistics and the case study project. Six interviews were conducted either in person or over the phone. The questions were open-ended, allowing the interviewees to address and discuss topics they personally thought were relevant for the case. The interviews addressed two overarching themes. First, we enquired about their roles and responsibility in relation to different aspects of urban freight logistics. Second, we asked open-ended questions about their involvement in the specific case and how they perceived the collaboration and communication across departments, plans, and between stakeholders to be. We did not interview any politicians, as this case study aimed to explore the implementation of policies already in place.
4.1 Timeline of the planning process
Based on the case documents and interviews, we mapped the timeline of events associated with the design and construction of the building, changes to the roadway, and freight delivery decisions, in turn relating these events to the planning context and current procedures (Fig. 6).
The bicycle plan developed in 1998 was a thematic plan whose intention was to identify the main bicycle routes that were planned across the city. The street in this case study was identified as being one of the streets where the planned route would go. However, the thematic plan did not specify when the construction of the bicycle infrastructure was to begin or how the infrastructure was going to be designed and laid out along each street. So while the thematic plan was not legal in any sense, it merely served as a guideline.
After the initiative for a new grocery store on the site was set in motion by the developer (2010), building construction plans were designed in collaboration with an architect. Next, a designated case officer arranged an obligatory start-up meeting at the city planning office, which presented an arena for the developer to display their plans and discuss with city planning office representatives, among other things, contextual issues about the construction and planned operation of the building. It is not known if issues related to truck deliveries were discussed in this meeting, but at the time there were no city planning department employees who were specifically tasked to consider freight and/or goods movement in the building’s planning process.
The central directive for all construction in Norway is the Plan and Building Act. Although the law contains paragraphs relevant to freight delivery, it does not consider delivery situations directly. Directives for freight delivery solutions must therefore be interpreted from general statements found in the law. To support local planners and developers, organisations such as the National Public Road Administration (NPRA) have developed detailed ‘best-practice guidelines’. However, these guidelines do not focus on shared urban space for the street users or general delivery isues; instead, they are mainly concerned with technical aspects of the construction plans to ensure a safe environment for workers. Establishment of delivery ramps are evaluated with the current street plans. Because the Plan and Building Act does not require a detailed plan for the building’s operation, the project owner, in collaboration with an architect, may initiate the building process of commercial real estate without explicitly knowing what store(s) will reside in the building. This means that from the time the plans are initiated until the construction project is finished, the expected type and frequency of goods delivery may have changed. In the case presented here, the planned use of the building (grocery store) was already determined. However, since the planned use of commercial real estate may change from initiation to operation, start-up meetings typically focus only on the plan’s construction.
After the start-up meeting, the building plans were announced officially, and stakeholders such as neighbours and the freight delivery union were notified in writing. Stakeholders were given the opportunity to raise concerns about the building’s design and planned operation. In this case, no external stakeholders made any remarks about the plans. When concerns are raised, there may be revisions to the plan and subsequent public hearings. Once the plans were accepted in the review process, the case officer presented the construction plans for the city council. They approved the plan, and construction began (2013). There were no evident discussions regarding freight deliveries at the building location within the review process or approval by the city council.
During the building planning process, the city council announced a thematic ‘Green City Plan’. These thematic plans are most often non-juridical and lack the level of detail useful for individual building plans. One of the main priorities of the Green City Plan was to offer continuous bicycle paths throughout the city. In conjunction with the ‘Green City Plan’, the city council decided to move forward with the bicycle plan from 1998, which included the construction of bicycle infrastructure along the street section in the case study. While the bicycle plan contained the planned route, a final decision on the specific street was not implemented until 2014. In addition, the plans did not specify the design of these paths. It is uncertain to what degree, if any, the bicycle plan was updated to reflect changes in the city’s development in the 10-plus years since its establishment. Although, with respect to this case study, it is unlikely that there would be any change to the placement of a bicycle route along the road section given that it is a logical link within the bike network with limited route alternatives within the corridor. After the building construction was complete and building became operational, bicycle lanes were installed on either side of the street.
Additionally, after the construction was completed, city planners in collaboration with regional road authorities set in motion a new street plan that altered the road section just north of the building site from a two-way street to a one-way, in effect limiting the mobility of larger trucks. The new street plans were under development at the time the construction project had started. Based on our conversations with the interviewees, it appears that neither the bicycle lane plans or changes in the street configuration were addressed by any of the public stakeholders until after the building was finished and operational and changes to the streetscape were completed.
After complaints were filed by the freight delivery union (LUKS), the Norwegian Labour Inspection Authority determined that conditions for freight delivery personnel were hazardous due to the bike lane crossing the path of delivery. The building owner and the city planning office decided to install the previously discussed rumble strips to alert cyclists to the presence of delivery trucks (and perhaps slow down bicyclists crossing the delivery zone, although this was not the direct intention). Several months after the rumble strips were installed, a small sign and flashing light were also installed to warn cyclists of impending deliveries.