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Claus Hedegaard Sørensen is senior researcher at VTI. With a background in political science, a main focus of his research is the transformation of the transport sector to suit a sustainable society, and another main focus is transport governance, that is institutions, processes, policy instruments and policy legitimacy. Often, he combines these fields. The last couple of years, a core interest has been the challenges of gaining popular legitimacy for transformative policies and policy instruments in the sector. In this context citizen participation and visions are of particular interest.

Claus has more than 25 years of experience as researcher in this field, where he has worked as civil servant and consultant, too. Among his work is also the organization, governance, and collaboration inf public transport, new shared modes of transport and so-called “smart” mobility. The role of knowledge in transport policy making, national transport planning, as well as policy instruments and organsation of traffic safety, zero vision and traffic noise abatement are also part of his work.

Claus is a member of the research group Planning, governance and transformation

2025–2028

The role, opportunities and limitations of metagovernors in the development of sustainable and resilient collective mobility

With public transport as the backbone, there have been many attempts to promote a combination with other shared modes of transport and thus create a more attractive collective mobility. However, coherent and competitive solutions that can create a modal shift away from the passenger car are rarely seen.

The solutions require extensive collaboration between many both private and public actors with different interests and cultures. Metagovernors are actors who take overall responsibility for managing and coordinating many parties with respect for the autonomy of each and with the aim of achieving public goals, and metagovernors might be central to succeed in promoting coherent collective mobility.

Today metagovernors do not exist in Swedish collective mobility, but they seem to develop in other countries. In collaboration with actors in collective mobility, the project suggests recommendations and guidelines for metagovernance of collective mobility both in Sweden and abroad.

2025–2026

More and faster or less and slower – assumptions and consequences

Transport planning has long been dominated by a “more and faster” logic, where all efforts are focused on making alternatives to the car resemble the car’s characteristics. In other words, “slower modes of transport”, such as public transport, shared mobility, cycling and walking, often need to imitate the car’s features.

The ambition of this project is to explore and delve deeper into the issue between slower transport (i.e., public transport, walking and cycling) and faster mobility (for example, the car).

The project will analyse how fundamental assumptions about more and faster mobility shape governing documents and the discourse within transport planning.

2025–2026

Integration of road safety into the sustainability transition at local and regional level.

Municipalities and regions are transitioning towards sustainable mobility, which involves increased use of public transport and active travel (walking and cycling). In this process, it is important to integrate road safety. In Sweden, road safety work is based on the Vision Zero approach, aiming for no fatalities or serious injuries in traffic.

However, previous research shows that working according to Vision Zero can be more challenging at local and regional levels. The purpose of this project is to contribute with new knowledge about what is required to integrate Vision Zero-based road safety work with a sustainable transition of mobility at local and regional level.

Visit the project at Örebro University website

2023–2024

The role and characteristics of public transport between planetary and social boundaries: thresholds, scenarios and positive visions

The way we live today, not least when it comes to transport, puts unsustainable pressure on the planet’s boundaries. At the same time, society’s resources for transport and the benefits that mobility provides are unevenly distributed. Public transport can play a critical role in reducing these disparities and ensuring that all groups in society have sufficient opportunities to travel in a way that respects the planet’s limits.

In the project, we have based our work on the so-called doughnut model, which is used to describe how human needs can be met without exceeding the Earth’s ecological boundaries. The model has not previously been applied to the transport system to any significant extent, and the focus on public transport that we have used is unique.

The project’s results indicate that affluent areas in Sweden have the least sustainable mobility behaviour, but all areas must reduce car use to stay within the planet’s boundaries.

Visit the projectsite at K2

2021–2024

Politicians, citizen participation and the implementation of contentious measures for sustainable transport (TRANSPOL)

To meet climate goals, people need to travel less by car. Some cities have successfully reduced car use, where more people travel by bike, on foot, or by public transport. Without exception, these successful cities have made cycling, walking and public transport nicer – but they have also made driving a car a bit more difficult by charging for road use or taking road space away from cars.

These “contentious transport measures” are the project's focus, because if we want to meet climate goals, cut other pollution, improve road safety and make our cities nicer places to be, then more of these measures must be implemented in more towns and cities. Of course these “contentious” measures are not always very popular, so politicians often do not like them.

The study has identified three key dimensions of public interaction with municipalities in the context of implementing contentious transport measures. The three dimensions encompass the actions of protesters, municipalities' efforts to engage the public in planning processes, and coherence between various municipal policy domains.

Visit the projectsite at Molde University

2022–2023

Limits to collaboration in public transport

Collaboration between a wide range of public and private actors is often seen as an important tool used by authorities to address many societal challenges. This also applies to public transport. In both practice and research, trust in collaboration and suggestions on how to improve collaboration to achieve success are common.

In this project, however, we adopted a critical perspective and examined the boundaries of collaboration within public transport. By applying literature on collaboration, we established a typology, which was then further developed through a workshop with Swedish representatives of stakeholders connected to public transport.

The overall conclusion is that stakeholders in public transport should always carefully and critically consider the advantages and disadvantages of collaboration before initiating or engaging in collaborative initiatives. It is also important that stakeholders are aware of possible negative consequences that may arise as a result of collaboration.

Visit the project at K2:s website

  • Affiliated with the National Knowledge Centre for Public Transport (K2), with researchers from many institutions across Sweden.
    K2:s website
  • Participates in the national research school TRANSPLACE, Transformation in the Interfaces of Planning (2023–2027), led by the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH).
    TRANSPLACE website
  • Participates in the Interreg project Green Mobility Shift (2023–2026) together with a large number of municipalities, transport companies, regions, research institutions and others from Zealand in Denmark and Skåne in Sweden.
    Green Mobility Shifts website)

Organisation

Reserach Department of Society, Environment and Transport

Unit: Mobility, Actors and Planning