Designing movement to improve places

The NSW Movement and Place Framework is part of a broader trend towards more place-based strategic design and planning.

These approaches are manifested in initiatives ranging from the Greater Parramatta Growth Area’s Place Infrastructure Compact through to directions in the NSW Regional Plans such as ‘enhancing strategic transport links to support economic growth’.

Defining a desired character

Mapping, analysing, and understanding the urban environment is the starting point for aligning movement and place.

Place analysis, undertaken by a multi-disciplinary team, provides both an understanding of both the existing character and a plan for actions for how that character can change in the future. The aim in articulating the desired state of a place is for it to become, or remain, a well-designed urban environment.

A place-based approach, is a useful method for addressing the complex and contested dynamic of place versus movement. This should be done early, and distinct from any analysis of movement function. A transport study to identify the movement functions that support that place should also be undertaken.

An understanding of place intensity requires community input through consultation – either directly in relation to a specific project or drawn from previous community consultation undertaken by local councils. The desired character for areas identified for significant change may also need to be understood through a future vision for that place, as set out in strategic plans and frameworks.

Just as we consider peak demand in relation to movement needs, we also need to ensure places perform well in a typical ‘place peak’ (the highest intensity of people staying or moving within the place). These peaks may be distinct (such as a commuter flow or late-night entertainment), leading to different performance over time, or peaks may overlap (a commuter flow and evening trading), leading to trade-offs.

Balancing movement

Movement needs to be analysed and understood to identify areas that can be made more efficient, and could potentially ‘make space for place’. Considerations include:

• identifying policies and plans for the road or street, such as designation as a ‘transport corridor’ in Future Transport, or a specific movement designation in an integrated transport plan
• understanding how a specific link relates to the larger network
• assessing the walkability and cyclability of short trips, and the role of public transport for longer journeys. Efficiency can be both spatial (maximising people-throughput), as well as temporal (e.g. setting an objective for public transport to be time competitive with private cars)
• strategies for enabling mode shift e.g. on-the-ground-campaigns, infrastructure (like bus lanes), network adjustment to reroute movement or blanket guidance such as a modal hierarchy
• taking a precautionary approach to short-term demand (such as growth in non-strategic movement) – approaching increased throughput with caution, and taking active measures to support places impacted
• The balancing of movement and place is complex and contested – there are competing demands on the spaces in our cities and towns, and we need to use any undeveloped land efficiently to ensure the vibrancy and sustainability of future communities.

Managing transition

Many of our places are in flux. Improved connectivity through new transport networks and technology; degradation due to speed, noise or poor air quality; change of land use; development intensity and changes in the economy and settlement patterns all affect how places may evolve in the future. Identifying the desired future character of a place requires not only identification of the best-possible realistic future, but also the short-, medium- and long-term changes that need to occur to enable that future state to come about.

Methods and processes for aligning movement and place

Delivering better places for NSW requires a high level of ambition and careful stewardship. The interaction between movement and place is dynamic: places create demand for the movement of people and goods, just as movement serves and shapes places. 

The process of balancing movement and place largely requires compromise – either because of the limited space available in existing built-up areas, or in new projects, due to the tension between vibrancy (often requiring compactness) or value for money vs accommodating all possible functions.

To ensure the best outcome for both movement and place, the process must be as inclusive, collaborative, and exploratory as possible including looking at various options with all key stakeholders and experts from different disciplines.

For this reason, project managers need to identify all key disciplines relevant to a project from the outset, and to assemble a project team and engagement process that will gather relevant views. Teams may include a number of ‘movement’ practitioners with specific expertise on modes, journey types or scales of movement, as well as practitioners focused on place, including local authorities, land-use planners, social planners and urban designers. Multidisciplinary teams are recommended, so that both movement and place assessments can be undertaken separately at first and then brought together, but all projects should aim for interdisciplinary thinking – each member of the team working with others to achieve a best fit.

Identifying outcomes early in a process can have greatest impact with the least associated change cost. All projects should identify place outcomes for delivery at the earliest phase of the project.

Project stages

Movement and Place can be useful at all stages in the delivery of a project or program, as well as in the ordinary operation and maintenance of both movement infrastructure and places. Its practical application changes at different stages, from project inception where it can assist with research and arriving at an appropriate project definition, through to operations and maintenance where it can be used to generate end-of-life and project renewal options.

Delivering place benefits in movement projects and programs