Australian metropolitan planning strategies are focused on more intensive use of existing land in order to stem urban expansion and improve accessibility by public transport. New accessibility tools offer the possibility to guide these policy changes, overcoming restrictions to policy innovation associated with traditional transport planning practice. This paper reports on the application of two new accessibility tools. SNAMUTS was applied in Perth to evaluate metropolitan growth and public transport infrastructure provision. MULUTT was applied in Brisbane to evaluate the location of a major sports stadium. The two case studies highlight the benefits of these tools in a deliberation process where stakeholders consider how to guide and manage urban development framed around improved and equitable access by public transport.
The Spatial Network Analysis for Multimodal Urban Transport Systems (SNAMUTS) tool has been employed to quantify and visualise public transport accessibility in metropolitan Melbourne on a regular basis since 2008. Across a four-stage time line (2008-2014 in biannual steps), it documents changes associated with network expansion and service upgrades as well as underlying trends in the geographical distribution of residents and jobs. During the same period, Victoria experienced two changes of state government as a result of elections where, in the eyes of most political commentators, the state of public transport and proposals for future improvements played a decisive role in determining voter behaviour. This paper traces the evolution of public transport accessibility in Melbourne and link the documented changes to the political process. It shows that the Bracks/Brumby (1999-2010) government’s SmartBus initiative had the greatest beneficial effect on accessibility according to most SNAMUTS indicators, but we argue that this impact arrived too late to save the government’s electoral fortunes. The Baillieu/Napthine (2010-2014) government’s focus on frequency improvements on selected rail and bus feeder lines measures more modestly in accessibility terms, and moreover failed to sufficiently address public transport’s mounting congestion problem as Melbourne’s population continues on a rapid growth trajectory. In the context of these documented shortfalls, we conclude with a range of recommendations for public transport improvements that would be required to minimise the risk of another election fought over legitimate discontent with public transport in 2018.
As a result of rapid metropolitan growth, Perth is poised to overtake Denmark’s capital Copenhagen in terms of population size within this decade. The city’s ‘coming of age’ has also sparked a fundamental rethink about how urban transport is organised: during the past twenty years, Perth gradually shifted from a system of near-universal automobility towards the emergence of at least a core network of competitive public transport, including some of Australia’s pioneering efforts at integrating land uses around multimodal accessibility. Copenhagen is one of Europe’s lowest-density cities and does not stand out among its neighbours for an extraordinarily successful public transport system. However, a benchmarking exercise using the Spatial Network Analysis for Multimodal Urban Transport Systems (SNAMUTS) tool reveals that in 2009, land use-transport integration as well as public transport network performance in Copenhagen were superior to Perth by orders of magnitude. This paper will describe how the varying performance of both cities’ land use-transport systems has evolved in the past and make a detailed comparison of accessibility performance from several angles. It will then move on to the more pertinent question whether Perth has any realistic chance to approach or match the levels of accessibility performance found in Copenhagen in years to come. For this purpose, we will draw on some future scenarios for land use and infrastructure priorities developed for the WA government in 2009 with the aid of the SNAMUTS tool. How radical a departure from current urban development and mobility trends would be required if Perth were to ascend to the ranks of an average-performing European city? How would Perth’s growth need to be accommodated and what infrastructure and service measures would need to be pursued until 2030 if this goal was imperative to strategic planning?
The Melbourne 2030 metropolitan strategy nominates the shift of car trips to public transport, walking and cycling, and the consolidation and densification of activity centres as key policy goals (DOI, 2002). This integration of urban design, land development and transport planning reverberates at the local government level, where many councils have struggled to reconcile the competing interests of development pressures, public space quality and the inherent contradictions of state government transport policies that still fail to convey clear priorities in favour of sustainable transport modes.
The issue of residential density is again an important issue in strategic land use planning in Australia. For decades, Australian planners generally have accepted the conventional position that increasing the density of urban settlement on the urban fringe will achieve negligible land savings because the amount of land required for non-residential purposes remains constant. This position continues to affect government policy and practice. This article analyses the role of residential density in debates about urban form, and shows the potential for land savings from different scenarios of increased residential density and urban design. The article demonstrates the capacity for increased residential densities in new outer suburbs of cities to significantly contain outward urban growth.
Bringing together a comparative analysis of the accessibility by public transport of 23 cities spanning four continents, this book provides a hands-on introduction to the evolution, rationale and effectiveness of a new generation of accessibility planning tools that have emerged since the mid-2000s. The Spatial Network Analysis for Multimodal Urban Transport Systems (SNAMUTS) tool is used as a practical example to demonstrate how city planners can find answers as they seek to improve public transport accessibility. Uniquely among the new generation of accessibility tools, SNAMUTS has been designed for multi-city comparisons. A range of indicators are employed in each city including: the effectiveness of the public transport network; the relationship between the transport network and land use activity; who gets access within the city; and how resilient the city will be. The cities selected enable a comparison between cities by old world–new world; public transport modes; governance approach; urban development constraints. The book is arranged along six themes that address the different planning challenges cities confront. Richly illustrated with maps and diagrams, this volume acts as a comprehensive sourcebook of accessibility indicators and a snapshot of current policy making around the world in the realm of strategic planning for land use transport integration and the growth of public transport. It provides a deeper understanding of the complexity, opportunities and challenges of twenty-first-century accessibility planning.
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