As NSW continues to grow, we can make the most of opportunities to change the way our places and transport networks are designed, planned, and delivered in order to deliver maximum benefit for most people.
In the past, we’ve considered roads as just a way to get vehicles from A to B. The Movement and Place Framework recognises that streets are not just about moving people and goods – they are also places for people to live, work and spend time. Movement and Place is about getting the right mix of transport in the right locations to create places we can all enjoy.
By broadening our thinking about our roads and streets beyond their functional role in supporting movement, places can better deliver social, environmental and economic improvements for the entire community.
Likewise, by broadening our thinking about movement to include both mobility and access, we can promote the right mode for each trip purpose, and plan places that serve local areas and minimise the need to travel long distances.
The NSW Movement and Place Framework
The NSW Movement and Place Framework brings together knowledge and experience from across State and local government to create a body of expertise and community of practice. It aims to support the planning, design and delivery of a well-designed built environment that provides for the movement of people and goods as well as the needs of places and communities.
In NSW, the development and implementation of Movement and Place is guided and monitored by an Implementation Board and Steering committee made of senior executive staff from across the NSW Government.
The Implementation Board consists of Executive Directors from across Transport for NSW, Department of Planning and Environment, Infrastructure NSW, Greater Sydney Commission, NSW Health, Department of Education and Treasury. The Board provides support, guidance and endorsement to teams and individuals implementing the NSW Movement and Place Framework. The Board also oversees the development of the NSW Movement and Place Framework.
The Movement and Place Steering Committee is made up of Deputy Secretaries from Transport for NSW, Department of Planning and Environment, Infrastructure NSW, Department of Premier and Cabinet and Treasury. The Steering Committee provides high level coordination of Movement and Place across the NSW Government.
By establishing a common language across government and between levels of government, the NSW Movement and Place Framework lays the foundation for multi-disciplinary collaboration and co-design.
The Framework consists of guidance and a supporting toolkit for practitioners and evaluators. The Framework replaces previous guidance in NSW on Movement and Place, including the draft Road Planning Framework. The NSW Movement and Place Framework and Guides are supplements to Austroads guidance in relation to Movement and Place in NSW.
Contact our Movement and Place team at Transport for NSW, or the NSW Department of Planning and Environment for further information or any queries on the NSW Movement and Place Framework.
What is Movement and Place?
Movement and Place is a multi-disciplinary, place-based approach to the planning, design, delivery and operation of transport networks. It recognises and seeks to optimise the network of public spaces formed by roads and streets and the spaces they adjoin and impact.
A ‘place-based’ approach to planning involves taking a collaborative, spatial, long-term approach to develop contextual responses that better meet the needs of local people and their environment. Place-based planning aims to build and support thriving communities through collaboration, partnering, shared design, shared stewardship, and shared accountability
Well-designed places make people want to interact with them. This applies to everyone who uses a place, whether they are businesses, visitors, or members of a local community choosing how they will move around and where they will spend time. Well-designed places make our urban environments more healthy, attractive, resilient and equitable (which in turn delivers benefits such as economic productivity).
Our roads and streets are key public spaces for our communities – places where people spend time and socialise – enabling activities that add vitality to neighbourhoods. Aligning movement and place in the design of roads and streets can give users of all ages and abilities better, safer and healthier travel options while creating appealing places where people want to live.
Movement and Place provides a cohesive approach to aligning:
- integrated and efficient movement of people and goods with
- amenity and quality of places.
This alignment contributes to the attractiveness, sustainability and success of our cities and towns.
Movement and Place Objectives
Movement and Place aims to achieve a well-designed built environment as described in Better Placed and the Premier’s Priorities for a Better Environment.
The objective is to achieve roads and streets that:
- contribute to the network of public space within a location, where people can live healthy, productive lives, meet each other, interact, and go about their daily activities
- are enhanced by transport and have the appropriate space allocation to move people and goods safely and efficiently, and connect places together.
Trade-offs may be required to achieve the best fit for these objectives. The NSW Movement and Place Framework is designed to ensure this is done in the context of informed conversations, working collaboratively towards a shared vision, identifying a range of options to determine the best approach, considering multiple points of view, and consulting with multiple disciplines and stakeholders.
Movement and Place delivers on NSW policy and strategy directions to create successful streets and roads by balancing the movement of people and goods with the amenity and quality of places.
Where does Movement and Place apply?
Movement and Place considers the whole street including footpaths, from property line to property line. It takes into account the needs of all users of this space including people who walk and cycle, deliveries, public transport and private vehicles, as well as people spending time in those places, whether moving around the place or enjoying street life including outdoor dining, waiting for a bus or watching the world go by.
Movement and Place principles apply throughout NSW and can be adapted to any scale of project and level of decision-making. They apply to places where activity occurs – e.g. within both larger cities and smaller towns – and to the connections between these places.
| Strategic design | Planning | Design and delivery | Operations and maintenance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| City / Region / Network | Region plan | Planning policies | Codes | Operations plans |
| Town / District | District plan | Integrated land use and transport plan | Guidelines | Rolling investment programs |
| Precinct / Subdistrict | Local strategic planning statement / Strategic framework | Precinct structure plan | Precinct master plan | Precinct management plan |
| Neighbourhood / Corridor | Place strategy | Place plan | Place revitalisation | Place management plan |
| Block / Street | Street improvement project | Street concept design | Street upgrades, testing and pilot projects | Street operations improvements |
Table 1: A Movement and Place approach applies across a range of project scales and project stages
Who implements Movement and Place?
Movement and Place acknowledges that successful planning of our transport network is best achieved through a whole-of-government approach involving all levels of government. To deliver truly sustainable investment we need to coordinate our resources by setting common goals.
Balancing movement and place is the shared responsibility of the various organisations and individuals who plan, design, deliver, and manage our public space and movement systems.
This includes:
- NSW Government agencies, such as Transport for NSW and the Department of Planning and Environment
- local councils
- industry professionals including engineers, traffic and transport planners, urban designers, architects, landscape architects, strategic land-use planners, business case developers, and project managers.
Practitioners specialising in movement (e.g. transport planning and traffic engineering) and place (e.g. strategic planning, urban design and landscape architecture) share responsibility for creating well-designed built environments, including effective transport networks.
How it all fits together
The NSW Movement and Place Framework supports a holistic way of identifying and understanding opportunities, integrating possibilities, and designing appropriate responses that serve the public good.
Starting with this holistic approach, when the strategies and processes that align movement and place are implemented at the earliest stages of projects, and supported throughout project life cycles, they can engage whole-of-life costs and benefits to assist in creating successful places.