Transportation Management Associations in Quebec: Instruments of Transportation Planning Renewal?

This article focuses on the renewal of transportation planning practices and content in Quebec through the case of transportation management associations (TMAs), specialised in demand management, notably through the production of transportation management plans (TMPs) for businesses, industries and institutions. Qualitative data from a multiple case study of six TMAs, their partners and their customers, show that the TMAs, by putting forward practices based on collaboration and consensus, act as capacitating instruments of collective action that promote the coordination of the various actors involved in transportation planning. In addition, the TMAs act as social persuasion instruments by participating in the dissemination of new content based on the principles of sustainable mobility. However, the implementation of these principles represents a major challenge for the TMAs, which have neither the resources nor the necessary authority to ensure the achievement of their TMPs. The case of the TMAs underlines the limits of transportation planning renewal in Quebec: despite the adoption of collaborative procedures and awareness-raising initiatives on sustainable mobility, the content of traditional, auto-oriented transportation planning remains well anchored. Mobilising other types of instruments, including regulatory systems or financial incentives, appears necessary to supplement the contribution of TMAs to the renewal of transportation planning practices and content. To this end, the role of the state, with its capacity to combine different instruments, remains central to achieving this renewal.