My master's research project

Research subject

Public policies in urban transit are very complex; decision making for the development of these policies involves three levels of government (municipal, provincial and federal). According to Kaufmann et al. (2008) there are several comparative studies designed to identify best practices that could be used by governments in their development of transport policies, but these studies are not truly portable because they ignore the conditions of transferability. To enable this portability, it is necessary to study the origins of policies (ibid.). So I designed a study taking into account this consideration. My general research question is: how transferable best practices for the development of urban light rail can be identified through the comparison of the emergence and decision making surrounding these projects? This type of policy is most often studied by urban planners and I think it would be innovative and value of using the paradigm of the policy analysis of public administration to study this kind of politics.

Context

The cities of Ottawa and Washington are both planning to introduce new light rail public transit. Although these two projects have been launched around the same time, the Ottawa project seems to take one step forward and two steps back (La Haye, 2008) while its american counterpart seems to move more easily since the rail construction has already begun (District Department of Transportation, 2010).

Objectives

My research project involves a comparison of the process of setting up these two projects by comparing the development of both public policy through the emergence, development and the decision to move forward. To do this, my comparison will focus on several aspects such as institutions involved in the policy process, policy acceptability (social and political), funding mechanisms, institutional processes of decision making and public consultation related to these two projects. The objective is to identify transferable best practices as defined by Kaufmann et al. (2008) which take into account institutional differences between the two projects compared. Both cases are interesting to compare, because, although they both originally (10 years ago) seemed very similar, they have had two very different trajectories. Although they stem from a similar issue and share a similar agenda setting, I will be looking to see how they differ and what might explain this difference.

Methodology

As part of a comparative project, the methodological apparatus is of primary importance (Hassenteufel, 2008). It comes in three sequences. I will initially identify the elements of comparison (variables / indicators) through a review of the literature on the municipal policies of public transit. Meanwhile, I will lead two case studies on the cities of Ottawa and Washington based on a literature (academic papers, policy statements, press releases). Finally, semi-structured interviews will be conducted in the two cities with key transit policy actors to understand the process of emergence, development and decision thereof. The interviews are primarily intended to refine the case studies and to seize the political dynamics of each specific project. With all this data, I can identify best practices that can be transferred from one country to another.

Contribution to the advancement of knowledge

Several Canadian cities (Quebec City, Toronto and Calgary, for example) are currently planning to develop such systems of light rail transit in the future. My study could help identify best practices from both Canadian and American side, allowing the cities to learn from these experiences to improve their own process of developing this type of public policy . To this end, according to a report from the center of studies on networks, transport, urban planning and public buildings: "[...] the analysis of case studies showed that TRANSPLUS practices can successfully transfer between cities and one country to another "(Transplus, 2005, p. 25). In addition, research results can also be a scientific paper for submission to scientific journals, peer-reviewed ‘’Transport Policy’’ in English and ‘‘Flux’’ in French. The research will also help to supplement the knowledge on the concept of policy transfer from an academic standpoint.