MP Beteiligung: A Participation Master Plan makes citizen participation the strategic key to the mobility transition

The mobility transition requires profound changes that can only succeed with broad societal participation. Participatory processes are therefore a central governance instrument for fostering acceptance, integrating local knowledge and strengthening democratic legitimacy. In practice, however, a structural deficit is apparent: while strategic master plans exist for almost all substantive fields of mobility planning – from cycling and walking through public transport to parking management – there is no comparable planning instrument for the cross-cutting issue of participation. Participation is predominantly organised on a project-based, situational basis: local learning processes are lost, synergies remain untapped, marginalised groups are only sporadically involved, and long-term coordination across planning cycles is hardly achieved.
MP Beteiligung addresses this gap. Its objective is to develop and pilot a scientifically grounded framework that enables cities, municipalities and regions to elaborate a Participation Master Plan for their mobility system – as an autonomous strategic dimension on an equal footing with existing sectoral master plans. The framework combines a structured process model with a digital toolset that systematically processes past participatory processes, municipal structural data and regional contextual conditions, making them usable for strategic planning.
Methodologically, the project follows a transdisciplinary research design: an empirical analysis of existing participation strategies is followed by the development of a criteria matrix and practice-oriented participation strategies, which are translated into a modular digital toolset and co-creatively tested in three real-world contexts – the Climate Pioneer City of Klagenfurt, the LEADER Region Mühlviertler Alm and the Eastern Styria region. The expected outcomes are a validated framework, a digital prototype serving as an analysis and planning instrument, three Participation Master Plans tested under real-world conditions, and a transfer framework with concrete implementation pathways for public administration, policymakers and intermediary actors.