TRANSPORTING TO THE FUTURE: ONE COUNCIL’S PLAN FOR TWO DECADES OF GROWTH

TRANSPORTING TO THE FUTURE:

ONE COUNCIL’S PLAN FOR TWO DECADES OF GROWTH

By Rebecca Todesco, Journalist, Council Magazine Future planning is a key responsibility of councils around Australia, as the population steadily rises and more transport infrastructure is needed to support this immense growth. City of Ryde has tackled this head on, with the release of its award-winning Integrated Transport Strategy 2041, working to establish the vision, policy, directions and strategies required to achieve a sustainable, accessible, attractive and convenient transport system.

Transport infrastructure is crucial to the success of a city and allows for the creation of sustainable and liveable areas, in inner and outer suburbs alike.

Where other strategies may run the risk of being forgotten, City of Ryde’s Integrated Transport Strategy 2041 offers a clear action plan that resonates with responsible parties – eliminating the possibility of being a document that ‘sits on the shelf’.

The strategy analyses City of Ryde’s future and examines the impacts of a growing population and expanding economy, exploring opportunities to use technology to influence the way the community travels.

Through the strategy, Council seeks to improve alternative options to private cars – including public and active transport (cycling and walking) – and encourage more people to consider adopting new travel behaviours for all types of trips. Developed in-house and through collaboration with industry, State Government agencies, local politicians, neighbouring councils, business groups, bicycle advocates and the local community, the strategy recommends a ‘balanced mix’ of 58 priority transport projects across all modes of transport, including 21 active transport projects, 15 public transport projects, four active/public transport projects, three active/road transport projects and 15 road-related projects.

The 20-year plan builds on Council’s previously adopted transport and land use strategies by identifying and prioritising major transport infrastructure and services that will improve customer experience and sustainably accommodate future demand.

City of Ryde Senior Coordinator of Transport Planning, David Anderson, said Ryde’s strategy is unique and innovative not only in the way it was developed, but also in terms of its content.

“Ryde’s strategy outlines a specific list of infrastructure projects to be considered in the short, medium and long term.

“The strategy clearly outlines roles and responsibilities down to the department level if Council is responsible, or agency level if the State Government is responsible, as well as identifying projects where multiple stakeholders have a primary role and need to work together to achieve an outcome, while also identifying the first or next steps to be taken for each project.”

Mr Anderson said one of the benefits of identifying projects Council isn’t responsible for is forcing further dialogue between state and local government.

“This also encourages greater transparency around state transport plans, why some large-scale infrastructure projects are chosen over others and why some projects are identified for the short term and others are not,” Mr Anderson said.

The strategy’s uniqueness and originality has also been acknowledged on a national level, recently receiving a prestigious award.

AN AWARD-WINNING TRANSPORT STRATEGY

The Australian Institute of Traffic Planning and Management (AITPM) Excellence Award seeks to recognise and promote excellence in policymaking, industry practice and practitioners in the transport industry.

The award recognises professional excellence and encourages innovation and practices that challenge the standard way that industry approaches their services.

Ryde’s strategy was nominated for the prestigious award by the project team, who later announced that the strategy was shortlisted as a finalist.

The project team was asked to make a comprehensive presentation to the judging panel, with the winners eventually announced at the 2022 AITPM National Conference.

Mr Anderson said it was both a surprise and an honour to win the award, especially when all of the 2022 finalists were from local government.

“Winning the AITPM award has certainly raised awareness of the strategy, leading to further interest, media interest and requests to address other industry groups,” Mr Anderson said.

“It has been very satisfying for the small internal project team that produced the document to receive such attention and recognition for its efforts.”

THE INCEPTION OF THE STRATEGY

“City of Ryde was an early adopter in terms of developing an integrated transport strategy, releasing previous strategies in both 2008 and 2016,” Mr Anderson said.

The former strategy focused on achieving improvement to local air quality, with the latter honing in on identifying the many ‘missing links’ in existing transport networks and improvement of network efficiency.

City of Ryde’s latest strategy looks for the best ways of accommodating the future transport needs of a growing population, increasing levels of development and considering current trends such as the benefits of new technology and the working from home revolution, particularly in terms of how they impact the transport system.

“The strategy acknowledges that the existing road network will be unable to cope during peak periods, particularly if the local population were to almost double during the next 20 years,” Mr Anderson said.

A draft of the plan was placed on public exhibition for an extended eight-week period, with the local community invited to share opinions and concerns.

Community consultations took place via materials in Council’s libraries and online, including a Council-run social pinpoint map, which enabled members of the public to find out more about priority initiatives relating to their location.

It was important to Council that community members were provided multiple avenues to give their feedback, with locals invited to have their say via an online form, email, phone or mail.

According to Mr Anderson, while residents are interested in nearby projects, a significant amount of feedback received was quite supportive of the new directions being proposed.

“Feedback received from the local community and their elected representatives, as well as officers of neighbouring councils, was overwhelmingly positive.”

Mr Anderson said that integration is needed, not only between the various forms of transport but between land use planning and the various parties responsible for the delivery of future transport infrastructure.

“The strategy explores all of these aspects,” Mr Anderson said.

“As well as playing an educational role and being a resource for planning, the strategy seeks to have many of the ‘visionary’ long-term transport projects proposed by the State Government built sooner than would otherwise be the case.

“The strategy is considered a living document that will be updated as required, including when new Census data becomes available.”

SHORT AND LONG-TERM COMMUNITY BENEFITS

The 20-year plan outlines a range of benefits the strategy hopes to deliver in the short term, as well as outcomes Council hopes to achieve over a longer period of time.

Mr Anderson explains that through the strategy the community can expect to see better ‘place’ outcomes, focused on making centres more attractive places to be, with an additional emphasis placed on accommodating users such as pedestrians and cyclists in key centres.

He said it is hoped that this focus – when combined with plazas and slower speed limits – can bring new vibrancy to an urban centre.

Additionally, enabling easier use of major transport corridors assists in the preservation of residential areas, ensuring the unique character of such areas is maintained.

RIPPLE EFFECTS FOR THE WIDER COMMUNITY

City of Ryde’s plan aligns with the state’s transport planning framework, and the clear action plan for identified improvement projects – including infrastructure, services and policy initiatives – and encourages further dialogue and cooperation between state and local government representatives.

The strategy examines the need to make public transport far more efficient than it is – therefore making it more competitive with private vehicles.

Council has contemplated the latest best practice in transport planning philosophies and innovative technologies, including further access to real-time transport data and on-demand driverless electric bus services.

“We can no longer ‘build our way out of trouble’ and the strategy discusses the need to make public transport far more efficient and therefore competitive with private vehicles,” Mr Anderson said.

“Various public transport infrastructure and service improvements are recommended to support this need.”

“The strategy goes beyond smallerscale Council initiatives and identifies large visionary transport projects that will be needed, or fast tracked (if already identified in Future Transport 2056) to encourage the use of sustainable transport modes,” City of Ryde Senior Coordinator Transport Planning, David Anderson.