Training Professionals for Cross-Boundary Planning

For decades, Dutch transport policies have been dominated by two themes: congestion and environment. Extensive research has revealed planning concepts that can improve the performance of transportation networks and reduce the environmental impact of traffic and transport by using spatial planning policies. Such concepts were introduced in the Dutch policy realm with little success, and there remains a lack of cooperation between the fields of traffic and transport and spatial planning and between various levels of government–-at the cost of accessibility and the environment. The recent shift in Dutch traffic and spatial policies to decentralize power and policy implementation from the national to the regional level might encourage regional transport and spatial planners to integrate the policy realms toward cooperation or even to collaboration. This article describes the design of training for transport engineers and spatial planners to improve their abilities to cooperate successfully and to work more effectively on the regional themes of accessibility and environmental impact. The training focuses on projects that can be characterized as cross-boundary cooperation. The training is based on the theories and practices of the learning organization and on a constructivist perspective on learning.