Abstract (EN)

Since the 1980s, when the city of Nantes set up its tram system, tramways and segregated lanes for buses have been thriving in French metropolitan areas, while public transportation has been expanding. The layout of the lines within a city and the introduction of the transportation platform into the public space are the result of the tradeoffs made between the technical stakes of the project and the local stakeholders’ expectations. In this article, we propose a methodology that facilitates a process of concertation involving reasoned public discourse (the French word “Concertation” does not have any real equivalent in English. It designates a participative decision-making process in which the various stakeholders are able to express their point of view and have it taken into account in the decision-making process). This methodology, based on historical research about past transportation projects, uses multi-criteria decision-making methods to reach a compromise between the technical stakes and local expectations.