Shopping Centres, Cycling Accessibility and Planning—The Case of Nova Lund in Sweden

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Dear Authors,

I thank you for the opportunity to review your work.

The article Shopping Centres, Cycling Accessibility and Planning - The Case of Nova Lund in Sweden, presents a comprehensive case study of a shopping centre located in a medium-sized town in Sweden.

The article presents a structure that in my view is quite different from the task that a scientific article should have. However, the explanation and the extensive knowledge that the authors have of this particular case is very interesting.

• One of the aspects I miss most is some more extensive bibliographical review of the concepts used in the manuscript.
• In order to develop a sustainable transport system, sustainable modes of transport must be increased in mode share and motorised modes must decrease". It is necessary to distinguish between motorised transport and sustainable transport (public transport)
• I think it would be advisable to eliminate this statement, because I do not find in the article that critical analysis of the existing literature on sustainable urban mobility. "Furthermore, it is the objective of this article to contribute a critical analysis to the existing literature on sustainable urban mobility. ”

The development on the case is very extensive and well documented, moreover, the method followed in reviewing the documentation and conducting interviews with the most important agents also seems to me to be adequate, but I see a certain lack of rigour, or rather, I see that many issues have been left aside that should have been dealt with, either in the bibliographical review or within the development of the manuscript, for example:

• No reference is made to any survey or opinion poll as to whether local people prefer to go to the shopping centre by private car or by collective means such as bicycles. It is possible that shopping in a (semi-outdoor) shopping centre is preferable for families, and that if the access roads by bicycle are not very suitable, this will make this form of travel more difficult. But it is also possible that such facilities contain a large number of shops and other premises that make cycling difficult to transport the items you buy, even if it is stated in the text that they are small.
• There are also comparisons of bicycle usage rates between the shopping centre itself and some cities (Groningen and Freiburg), which I consider not to be fair, even with Lund itself.
• La afirmación "The study entitled The Importance of Bicycle Parking Management shows that greater accessibility to bicycle parking increases the number of cyclists", debería ser citada la fuente.
• Do you have any data on other shopping centres and the influx of cyclists?
• It would be interesting to reflect some data on the rational choice of people, mobility habits and constraints on the choice of mode of transport. The article seems to speak only of accessibility by means of infrastructures, and I believe that some other important factors (motility, accessibility, cultural values, etc.) should be addressed, if only to complete the approach. I recommend that you study the work of:
  • Newman, P.W. Transport infrastructure and sustainability: A new planning and assessment framework. Smart Sustain. Built Environ. 2015, 4, 140–153
  • Urry, J. Inhabiting the Car. Rev. 2006, 54 (Suppl. 1), 17-31
  • Zahavi, Y. Travel Time Budget and Mobility in Urban Areas; Federal Highway Administration, Department of Transportation: Washington, DC, USA, 1974.
  • Banister, D. The trilogy of distance, speed and time. Transp. Geogr. 2011, 19, 950-959.
  • de las Heras-Rosas, C.J.; Herrera, J. Towards Sustainable Mobility through a Change in Values. Evidence in 12 European Countries. Sustainability 2019, 11, 4274.
  • Kaufmann, V. (2000). "Modal Practices: From the rationales behind car & public transport use to coherent transport policies. Case studies in France & " En World Transport Policy & Practice, Volume 6, Number 3 (8-17)

In short, I think the focus of the article is not clear from the initial summary, if you are going to comment on the influence of policy and other factors in this case study, then I think that is correct. Instead, it is necessary to provide a somewhat broader view on the use of sustainable transport before going into the case study in depth.

In my opinion, the study is a detailed explanation of a very specific case. The conclusions should speak a little about the limitations of the study and the recommendations or applicability that its findings would have for the scientific community.

Greetings and good luck!

Author Response

See Rebutal Reviewer 1.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

This is a good, empirical paper that demonstrates some of the challenges faced when pressures for land use and economic development are contrasted with sustainability goals, particularly sustainable transport.

My impression of the paper is that the methods employed in the assessment of the access to Nova could have been enhanced by a more quantitative approach, using methods that have been developed to measure (in)directness of cycling routes (relative to auto) and comfort level for cyclists on facilities.  Taking these approaches would provide a more rigorous assessment of the facilities and generate more credible conclusions on the unsatisfactory access conditions.

In this section, it would also be useful to get a sense of the attributes of the access roads to the Nova development - number of lanes, speeds, etc.

I found the review of the literature to be a stronger part of the paper.  It is interesting to see how such projects evolved and what considerations were articulated.  It's also telling to look back and see which, if any, of the concerns that were raised actually influenced the permissions for and design of the facility.

I found the theoretical constructs on power differentials to also be interesting.

For me, the strongest conclusion from the paper was the need for a regional approach to decision making on these kinds of development.  The Authors arrive at the conclusion that the purpose of the Nova construction was "protectionism" - if such a facility weren't built in Lund, it would have been built elsewhere with losses to Lund in jobs and economy.

This is, of course, a common argument.  The remedy for this is to have regional control over these types of large shopping centers with, potentially, sharing of revenues.  I would welcome the authors' reactions to this idea.

Author Response

See rebutal Rerviewer 2.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 3 Report

Overall, I think this is an interesting paper. It presents a topic of interest to urban planning and mobility policies. This paper analyzes the study case of cycling accessibility to the Nova shopping centre in Lund (Sweden). Until now, little attention has been paid to such specific accessibility studies from the point of view used by the authors (hermeneutics).

However, several aspects must be improved.

• Firstly, the introduction should be reworked to include how accessibility to shopping centers located in the urban periphery has been studied (by car, public transport, pedestrian or bicycle).
• The third section on Nova's history should go before. A better explanation of the urban context of Lund is needed also in this section: Are there other shopping centers in the city? What is the area of influence of Nova? What role does the shopping centre play? Stands out for daily use? Is it for sporadic use (on weekends)?
• The study is mainly based on the exchange of ideas with two planning experts, but it would be interesting to know the opinion of the cyclists.
• At the end of the page 7: “Common to all the routes investigated in the study is that it was difficult to locate Nova and that the route there is perceived to be roundabout and non-linear, primarily because of strict separation from car traffic, whose road is linear, as well as due to the lack of bicycle signage. Overall, the bicycle signage is satisfactory, although there are no signs showing the way to the Nova shopping centre, neither in the local vicinity nor some distance away”. It seems like a contradictory or incoherent statement.
• The mode of citation must be updated and standardized. E.g. Pages 12, 13 and 14; where references to the interviews of Rydén and Söderberg or the Lund municipality appear several times, it must be indicated with the model of the journal (number that later appears in the bibliographic list). The same with the last reference to (Lefebvre 1996 [1968]: 156).
• In the final recommendations for the improvement of cycling mobility, why is the need for the developoers of the shopping center to take charge of it not addressed?

Other minor aspects:

• Figures 1: Add data on 2018 walk mode, 5%. Other?
• There is a mention to Figure 1 in the second sentence of the second section (Bicycle study): The bicycle study tested four different routes for reaching the shopping centre, see Figure 1. However, Figure 2 (not Figure 1) only has three paths. In addition, maps need north arrow and scale bar.
• Page 6: (See the red markings in Figure 4.). There is nothing marked in red in Figure 4.
• The study entitled The Importance of Bicycle Parking Management need a reference: [15].
• Page 15, fourth line: [28, 32, 1, 2, 29, 30]. Order.

Author Response

See rebutal Reviewer 3.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

This manuscript is a resubmission of an earlier submission. The following is a list of the peer review reports and author responses from that submission.