Prioritizing values in smart mobility governance : a stakeholder-based analysis

This research examines how stakeholders prioritize public values within the decision-making process in smart mobility governance. Our insights are based on the OptiRoutS project, which aims to promote sustainable travel behaviors through prosocial routes in car navigation in Belgium. We specifically focus on identifying and embedding societal values into multi-stakeholder decision-making processes applying mixed methods. After identifying the main stakeholders in the Belgian mobility ecosystem, we conducted 18 semi-structured interviews with stakeholders pertaining to all quadrants of the Quadruple Helix (i.e., government, academia, civil society, industry) to identify the most important drivers and values in mobility governance. During the subsequent co-creation session, we employed the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) method, to facilitate collaborative consensus-building and value prioritization. Our results highlight the complexity of decision-making in the mobility context, and the trade-off between the importance of values on the short-, and long-term. This stakeholder-based analysis offers new insights into how public values can be integrated into smart mobility governance frameworks. It provides guidance for policymakers aiming to balance technological advancement with societal goals. The study contributes to the broader discourse on value-based governance, emphasizing the role of multi-stakeholder collaboration in fostering just and sustainable mobility ecosystems.