In a joint meeting with representatives from the city of Offenburg’s urban development and transport planning departments on October 11, 2024, the research group presented the results of the surveys conducted in connection with the participation process for the OG 2035 Transport Master Plan. The Transport Master Plan OG 20235 was one of a total of five planning projects that the CIMT research group studied intensively over several years in order to investigate the effects of consultative citizen participation on political attitudes, among other things.
Various formats were carried out as part of the planning process, e.g. online dialogs, workshops, local forums, youth participation and the establishment of pop-up measures. Further information on the OG 2035 project and the participation formats carried out can be found on the City of Offenburg website.
This planning and participation process was examined by the CIMT research group at Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf independently (i.e. without being commissioned or influenced by the city of Offenburg), primarily with the help of surveys of Offenburg residents. For this purpose, a randomly selected part of the population in Offenburg was surveyed in 2021 and 2023. Further information on the research group’s surveys can be found here.
Selected results
- Transport policy and the transport transition are conflicting issues in Offenburg – just like in all other project areas examined. All opinions were represented in the participation process, although those in favor of the mobility transition were somewhat stronger and car users were also less common.
- Satisfaction with the local institutions (mayor, city administration, council) is rather average overall (and slightly worse than in other project areas) and deteriorated significantly from 2021 to 2023 in particular.
- The transport measures adopted as part of the OG 2035 master plan do not satisfy all interests, but overall only a minority (20-25%) are really against them. People who took part in the participation process rate the results more positively overall.
- As with most open participation formats, the participants are not representative of the population. They are mainly people with a high school diploma, middle-aged people and men.
- The participation process had a (comparatively low) and overall negative influence on satisfaction with local politics and administration, whereby the city administration was rated more positively than the mayor and council, especially by the consultation participants. As expected, people who welcome the measures of OG 2035 tend to be more satisfied, while those who reject the measures express greater dissatisfaction.