From throughput-per-hour to community-aware transport planning

Graham McCabe

Transport Advisory | Urbis

Graham is a leading industry expert across all aspects of the transport system. With over 25 years' experience in the public and private sector, Graham has been involved major projects around Australia and South East Asia, including leading the traffic and transport for Western Sydney Airport, developing the Philippines' first integrated transport network for the Asian Development Bank and working on other projects such as Sydney Metro, Sydney and Newcastle Light Rail, Pacific Highway and Gold Coast M1 upgrades. 

He is a trusted advisor to state and local governments and has recently delivered major advisory reports for the ACT Government on electric vehicles; City of Melbourne on parklets and spatial aspects of transport; City of Hobart on movement and precincts; G21 Geelong Region Intelligent Transport Strategy and Transport for NSW on Trackless Trams.
Graham heads Urbis' transport advisory business and is the sponsor of the stand-up lunch.

Spatial impacts of transport and the economy - valuing the movement aspects of roadspace from an economic viewport

Urbis was engaged by the City of Melbourne to provide an understanding of how transport modes contribute to recovery from the economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. The City had implemented numerous treatments to provide improved access for walking, cycling and public transport (as well as parklets) to support the return to the city, for which concerns as to their economic value had been raised, with some suggesting that the pop-up bike lanes be removed to support car parking.

As part of the analysis undertaken by Urbis, a model was developed that allowed us to review the pre-pandemic, during covid and covid recovery contributions of each transport mode accessing the city by the types of work they support, where people are travelling from and each modes contribution to the value of the city economy.  Additionally, we were able to look at each destination zone within the Central City of Melbourne and evaluate the value of different modes in their contribution to access, enabling prioritisation of modes at a block and street level. Subsequently, we have also developed a model that can value the movement components of roadspace. 

While our model primarily considered access into the Central Melbourne area, it is equally applicable to trips within the area as only 3 percent of trips with origins and destinations in the central area (2 kilometres are by car). Additionally, we identified the opportunity that can be achieved by reducing traffic that is inappropriately travelling through the central area and reallocating it to more productive means.

Key findings from our analysis have been endorsed by the City of Melbourne, supporting the prioritisation of walking and public transport. 
This model can be applied by Urbis to any city, block, street, lane or footway in combination with our place valuation model to  determine the value of roadspace based on current or future behaviour and land use.  

Erin Jackson

Technical Director Transport & Smart Transport Solutions Lead | GHD

Erin has been delivering innovative transport projects for her clients for over 18 years across the fields of traffic engineering, transport planning and project management. With a Masters degree in Traffic Engineering through Monash University, Erin is a Technical Director and leader within GHD transport team.  Her desire for continuous improvement has led her to be GHD National leader for their internal Smart Transport Solutions transformation initiative, and global leader for a Future Communities initiative focussing on the complexities of urban networks.  

Erin is passionate about optimising our transport networks using integrated strategic network planning, technology and systems thinking. The need to balance competing network priorities with the liveability aspirations is placing the transport sector under increasing pressure, requiring road assets to do more for our communities. Erin is currently developing a strategy to rethink the approach to network planning and how we can help road agencies approach network improvements holistically using systems thinking and a collaborative approach with the community at the core.  

Thinking differently about transport network planning to unlock community benefit

How confident are we as transport professionals that strategic direction is being translated all the way down to street level? Are we watering down urban initiatives to compromise for a wide range of users to avoid making difficult trade-offs in complex urban environments? How can you plan for a future network when significant land use decisions are yet to be understood?

This presentation explores the complexity of our urban transport systems and the challenges with delivering local transport transformation projects and ensuring that operations align with overarching strategy. The presentation draws on current investigations being undertaken by the presenter and GHD team into why urban transport programs are failing to deliver on strategic visions and why some projects aren't progressing at all. 

The presentation will explore the strategies available to us that work together to enable a successful outcome. Given the complexity of the issue, it's not a surprise that the solution equally needs an intricate, personalised and collaborative process. As practitioners, we need to embrace the diverse needs and interrelated systems underpinning our communities and require a fully stocked toolkit aimed at providing decision-making clarity, resolving misalignment between stakeholders and ultimately creating a pathway for implementation.

Lise Chesnais

NSW Transport Planning Team Lead | Arcadis

Lise is passionate about delivering transport strategies that support great places. To this end, she seeks to leverage her international experience and share global best practice in the Australian context. As a Toastmaster member, Lise has been recognised as a great storyteller; and she strives to deliver interactive and engaging presentations.

Lise has been a specialist in active transport and intergrated transport planning for 11 years. She is the NSW Transport Planning Team Lead at Arcadis; where she is currently leading the delivery of the Lower North Shore Place-based Transport Plan and the Westmead Place-based Transport Strategy for TfNSW. 

Reshaping mobility and creating space for place: the case of the Paris Riverbank Expressway

Paris makes headlines with its progressive transport agenda that truly shapes mobility and addresses global issues of climate, communities and inclusivity 
Lise lived and worked in Paris from 2010 to 2016 and worked on a flagship project of the current administration: the closing down of a major expressway through the city and transformation into a riverbank park and active transport link. Five years on, significant learnings from this project, its political and urban context, and impact on the city are an important case study for shaping mobility in urban Australia. 

This presentation will reveal the project origins, what made its implementation possible, how it performs today, and its synergy with other projects in the city. It will be based on publicly available data (available in French and therefore not accessible to most Australians), an update on the current status of the project, and further research that has been undertaken via contact with the client at Paris City Hall.