The project objectives should provide the directions for achieving the vision and should be S.M.A.R.T:
- Specific: Well-defined, clear, and unambiguous
- Measurable: With specific criteria that measure your progress toward the accomplishment of the objective
- Achievable: Attainable and possible to achieve within the project scope and timeframe
- Realistic: Within reach, realistic, and relevant to the broader community vision
- Timely: With a clearly defined timeline, including a starting date and a target date
As such, objectives should include:
Specific locations and activities that are critical to achieving the desired outcomes
The challenge of coming up with good objectives is to be more specific than the vision statements but not so prescriptive that you limit yourself at a later stage when you are developing options.
| Example: "Transport corridors that enhance the adjoining local environmental values" |
This is a broad objective and reads more like a vision statement as it is not clear what corridors are being referred to, nor how far ‘local environmental values’ extend. If the conversations with stakeholders and other inputs from the context analyses have pointed at some potential transport corridors (rail, new motorway, bridges, etc.) having particular impacts (positive or negative) on particular environmental features (creeks, habitat, etc.), you could include this in the objective as follows:
| Example: "Minimise noise impact on the Example River during the planned extension of Example Road" |
An integrated approach to all transport modes
It can be useful to consider multiple objectives that address the same theme. Especially for projects in larger areas, it may be difficult to find one objective that covers all aspects of sustainable mode share, for example.
| Example: When developing objectives to achieve a vision for an increase in sustainable mode share, you might have one objective that deals with encouraging walking within particular centres, one that focuses on extending the cycling network between transport interchanges, one that addresses providing better end-of-trip facilities at employment or education hubs, one that addresses severance and intersection density along movement corridors, and one that emphasises the need to reduce the need to travel by private car in the first place. |
Some multi-modal objectives are more relevant for particular built-up or geographical areas and emerging programs or committed council initiatives. When subsequent workstreams think about the most suitable interventions to achieve a vision, teams will understand how to achieve it by referring to these targeted objectives.
What needs to be 'reduced', 'increased' or 'maintained'?
Project teams are encouraged to combine proactive objectives (e.g. enhance, improve, reduce) with a good understanding of what works well already and therefore needs to be maintained. Conversations around what needs to be 'reduced', 'increased' or 'maintained' should go beyond preferred solutions as these may cause other solutions to be overlooked. Conversations with local place experts and a review of monitoring reports of programs or plans in the area will help to frame these objectives.
Consider smaller locations within the study area
Depending on the size of the study area, it is important to acknowledge that some objectives might make more sense in some parts of the study area than in others. To address this, the wording of objectives can include context-specific and place-specific detail that will help to demonstrate how you intend to achieve a high-level vision for a particular area. This will help you to frame specific interventions for specific places or aspects of the context.
Consider how broader strategic objectives apply to the local context
Every project’s scope is different. However, when it comes to objectives, one of the key challenges is to consider how the broader strategic objectives (such as connectivity for people and goods to major centres) will apply to the more local context (such as the street locations within the study area relevant to the strategic objectives). Objectives need to consider:
- the meaning, physical form and activity that defines the places within the study area
- movement to and from the place
- movement through the place
- movement within the place.
A significant opportunity for projects is to clearly express how the project’s objectives can apply broader scale interests in local applications. For example, a streetscape upgrade of a main street in an urban centre can not only enhance movement and place qualities, but it can also reinforce the ability for this place to achieve strategic centre ambitions, such as enhancing the local place economy.