Integrating land use and infrastructure planning drives transport infrastructure, employment opportunities, and services to be co-located. This means that people need to make fewer car trips because employment, shops, medical services, and schools, are close to where they live. Co-located businesses and industries also makes it easier to find local suppliers, employees, and services. The interface between destinations and the transport network is critical to deliver an accessible and inclusive transport network for everyone.

Our region’s high car dependency will require additional road capacity as our population continues to grow. It will be challenging to provide enough road capacity to service the community’s transport needs if this trend continues.

People who currently depend on the active and public transport network have unequal access to services and destinations. Access can be improved by connecting the pathway network, increasing the length of pathways that are suitable for people with disabilities and improving the amenity of pathways (eg providing seating, water bubblers, shade, bicycle repair stations etc).

Providing end of trip facilities, such as lockers, bike lockups and showers at suitable locations, can substantially influence the accessibility and attractiveness for active travel.

For people who are living further away from our centres and in rural areas it is unlikely that there are any viable alternatives to using a car. It is also often not cost effective for Council or the State to provide high frequency public transport or active transport infrastructure in low-density areas. Consequently, transport planning and service provision is focussed on safety, connectivity and managing congestion in rural areas. Low volume pedestrian use of existing roads in appropriate rural areas can be facilitated through traffic management and verge treatments where building pathways is unsuitable.

Congestion and travel time variability can have significant negative impacts for car-dependent people, such as our rural populations. Addressing travel-time variability is a key method to ease transport challenges for road users, allowing people to confidently plan their day.

Parking can impact an area’s accessibility by different transport modes as it’s often unsafe and unpleasant to walk or cycle through a car park. Car parking is necessary in our centres as many people need to drive to access work and services. A balance of short and long-stay parking areas near businesses allows access for trade, staff and visitors. Connected and covered pathways enable these parking opportunities to be located at appropriate walkable distances to destinations. By planning and managing parking supply Council can make sure that our centres remain pleasant places while remaining accessible to people from across our region.

The provision of street parking is subject to local laws with appropriate adjustments to suit site constraints. Street parking also presents many challenges as it impacts safety through reduced visibility, development yields, contributes to local congestion, needs enforcement while negatively impacting amenity, with each of these impacts having a bigger effect as growth intensifies. Narrow streets present particularly challenging parking issues such as large vehicle access, parking supply and non-compliance of local parking laws by people while accessing properties (eg 5.5m wide residential streets).

These issues are a transport symptom of growth, accessibility and connection, location, property tenancy types, legacy land-use planning and lack of viable transport options such as public and/or active transport. Ensuring all developments deliver suitable road widths for the location and proposed land uses can avoid repetition of these kinds of issues in the future.

• Advocating for increased and improved public transport.
• Connecting our pathway network through the Missing Link Pathways Program.
• Plan, design and deliver bus stops in collaboration with the Queensland Government.
• Provide tree shade cover for paths that are part of road infrastructure delivery.

• Plan for emerging communities and their transport needs to deliver future transport infrastructure as growth occurs.
• Support increased housing density around public transport stops to provide additional or more frequent public transport services.
• Plan and provide transport services and infrastructure that is inclusive and accessible to everyone by applying universal design principles.
• Integrate active transport with land use, public transport and the green network.

• Improve access (faster and better connectivity) for public transport last-mile journeys to all services, including health, cultural, recreational and essential services.
• Manage street parking supply to ensure that there is appropriate value between competing demands by considering placemaking, land value and accessibility.