Mobility management i glesbygd : samordning av gods- och persontransporter i Pajala kommun

Sammanfattning: The recent developments regarding passenger and goods transportation in sparsely populated areas with increasingly longer distances to daily services and work constitute the starting point of the present thesis. The overall purpose is to identify coordination possibilities that can make the transport of goods and people in sparsely populated areas more effective, with a maintained or improved service level. The theoretical frame of reference of the thesis is Mobility Management (MM) and Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB). The basic idea with MM is that the individual should use existing transport solutions in a more effective way through alternatives being offered and/or created. TPB concerns factors behind behavior change, which can be influenced in order to, for instance, change transport habits. The studies in the present thesis were mainly carried out within Pajala municipality between the years 2000 and 2006. The study methods consisted of interviews, meetings, surveys, and implementations. Results regarding transport of goods show that the term collective distribution was unclear, that central agreements influenced the companies in their choice of supplier and transporter, that companies outside of the Pajala population center transported goods themselves to a greater extent than companies inside the population center did, that suppliers and transporters recognized opportunities with collective distribution, where those transporting nondurables saw more opportunities than those who transported other goods. Where passenger transport is concerned, the results show that factors thought to be significant when implementing collective solutions were regular trips, stable passenger volume, marketing, commitment from potential users (local villagers) and from project owners (the planner, municipal civil servant, the traffic company, the transport company and the project manager), and finally a change in attitude and behavior by the individual. All in all, the thesis shows that collective distribution could be a possibility for handling the problems that currently exists in today's sparsely populated communities. However, the potential is not that great since collective distribution already is in use and since it is difficult to implement if the above mentioned conditions are not satisfied. However, if they are satisfied collective distribution could be an important tool for preventing an additional depletion of the service level in sparsely populated areas and thereby stem the migration of additional companies and residents from these areas.