Free people from relying on driving for door-to-door mobility by ensuring urban transport services are managed as an integrated, inclusive, user-responsive and smart transport system.
- Social benefits
- Liveable cities
- Digital Australia
Key messages
Transport services must deliver door-to-door mobility that meets all needs in all urban settings, allowing people to choose a lifestyle with less dependence on motor vehicles for passenger and freight movement.
Prioritising the early delivery of active travel and public transport options leads to more sustainable transport patterns and strengthens the longer-term justification for, and role of, new mass transit links.
The public transport system must be inclusive and welcoming for all users. Accessible public transport standards should cover demand-responsive services. The transport experience of people with disability must be consistently reported across all jurisdictions.
Slower speed limits, pop-up infrastructure and road user education will help to address the growing demand for enjoyable walking and bike-riding. Transport subscription packages should combine demand-responsive services with traditional public transport and new micromobility products.
The electrification and connectivity of the Australian vehicle fleet will be accelerated by integrating new technologies into the urban form – from two-way charging facilities to digital communications systems.
What are the impacts?
Improving the integration, speed, reliability and ease-of-use of active, public and demand-responsive transport services will deliver better quality and access outcomes for all urban Australians.
Social benefits will be experienced by people with disability and user groups that have not been at the centre of transport service provision, including women, older Australians, children and people who speak or read a language other than English.
Making it easier for a growing number of Australians to choose an electric vehicle or to walk, cycle or use a micromobility device will deliver a range of environmental, social and affordability outcomes that increase liveability. Users will also have more opportunity to opt out of car ownership.
When accessible transport outcomes are consistently reported in a form that is comparable across different jurisdictions, service providers will be more accountable and the trust of users in the governance of transport services enhanced.
How easy is it to implement?
The Australian transport sector has the proven capacity to deploy new technologies and non-traditional business models to deliver better personal mobility outcomes in urban areas at relatively low cost. However, this will need to be supported by investments in government capability, which could marginally increase cost to taxpayers.
While delivering the infrastructure for autonomous and connected vehicle operations will be technically complex, the required governance frameworks are being shaped to enable users to experience the benefits of these innovations.
In some cases, the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the demonstration of successful and affordable solutions like pop-up cycleways.
How certain are the outcomes?
Governments and operators responded to the COVID-19 pandemic by making quick changes to active, public and demand-responsive services. This generates confidence in the likely speed, effectiveness and acceptance of future changes.
The array of private sector service providers delivering innovative transport products, and the responsibility of states and territories for managing their local mobility outcomes, could reduce governments’ collective control over outcomes for users. However, the Australian Government’s defined authority over disability access, and potential leadership in relation to electric vehicles, offer opportunities to drive reform.
| Access |
First- and last-mile access
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| Access |
Accessibility
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| Affordability |
ZEV market share
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Read more about this recommendation in 4.3 Mobility choice made possible in the 2021 Australian Infrastructure Plan.
Reform implementation pathway
This recommendation comprises of outcomes and activities, which form the reform's implementation pathway.
The implementation pathway is designed to guide change agents on the supporting activities necessary to achieve the overall reform.
For each outcome and activity, we propose change agents to act as:
- Proposed sponsor: facilitate, coordinate and champion the recommendation
- Proposed lead: deliver specific activities or lead related outcomes
- Support: share ownership, contributions or knowledge to enable the reform process.
Relieve congestion growth at the start of the urban development lifecycle by making active and public transport first and last mile networks the first transport projects completed in the local catchment of emerging and new centres.
5-10 years
Pre-empt local congestion growth by identifying and delivering active and public transport networks around urban centres at the same time that they are designated as future mass transit station locations.
0-5 years
Maximise the accessibility of new mass transit services by active travel and local public transport and reduce reliance on the provision of commuter car parking by requiring mass transit corridor proposals to incorporate a first and last mile service delivery plan that addresses:
- active travel modes
- bus priority access
- demand-responsive services
- Mobility as a Service subscription models
- multimodal interchanges connecting first- and last-mile choices to mass transit services.
0-5 years
Promote the emergence of sustainable travel patterns in new communities by facilitating the operation of bus services that offer an attractive and reliable alternative to the purchase of multiple cars by a single household.
5-10 years
Enable the use of innovative funding mechanisms such as developer contributions to meet some of the operating costs of frequent scheduled or demand-responsive services during the first three to five years of people settling in greenfield urban areas.
5-10 years
Improve the attractiveness of public transport compared to car use in new release areas by ensuring the design and construction sequencing of road networks enable direct, frequent and efficient bus routes and services between separate subdivisions.
5-10 years
Accelerate the trend towards people using their cars less in established urban areas and grow a sustainable patronage base for public transport use for all passenger journey needs by bringing forward traditional and demand-responsive road-based transport products as alternatives to car use for door-to-door suburban travel.
0-5 years
Meet existing and emerging travel demand during the project development phase for mass transit corridors within urban areas by ensuring frequent bus services are operational on parallel roads or preserved corridors (where these are available) before new mass transit projects are announced.
0-5 years
Support the timely deployment of transport products that offer a lower-impact alternative to motor vehicle use for urban passenger and freight transport by ensuring traffic control systems, kerbside parking regimes, multimodal interchanges, commuter car parking, bus stops and access pathways are designed to integrate with and support demand-responsive bus, minibus, rideshare, micromobility device sharing and/or microfreight operations, as required.
0-5 years
Enable all jurisdictions to support efficient Mobility as a Service operations that provide users with seamless journey outcomes by developing and implementing a coordinated national position that addresses common definitions, data standards and system specifications.
5-10 years
To optimise door-to-door outcomes for users in lower-demand markets, ensure contracting models enable the integration of traditional and demand-responsive services under area-based public transport operating contracts.
5-10 years
Ensure all people in Australia enjoy equivalent accessibility outcomes by investing in transport infrastructure and services in line with the Disability Discrimination Act 1992 (Cth), Disability Standards for Accessible Public Transport 2002 and broad objectives for universal access to services.
5-10 years
Ensure reformed Disability Standards for Accessible Public Transport 2002 include minimum required feedback mechanisms for people with disability to hold transport service providers accountable for accessibility outcomes throughout the operating life of transport assets.
0-5 years
Increase the transparency of jurisdictional actions to address the travel needs of people with disability by reporting accessibility outcomes annually using nationally consistent and user-oriented measures. Provide information on changes in door-to-door accessibility outcomes as experienced by different groups of users over the reporting period and specify user-oriented improvements for the coming two years.
0-5 years
Develop and specify nationally consistent performance requirements for accrediting demand-responsive service providers as accessible. In the reformed Disability Standards for Accessible Public Transport 2002, include new performance requirements for 12-seater minibuses that are not currently covered by these standards, ensuring vehicles and associated customer interfaces meet the needs of people with disability.
0-5 years
Ensure all jurisdictions' mobility service support programs collectively provide efficient coverage for people with disability by ensuring mobility service providersí alignment with a national accreditation framework and empowering program participants to purchase services from accredited rideshare operators through a single point of access.
0-5 years
Invest in the capacity of operators to provide demand-responsive and rideshare services to improve access for people with disability in Small Towns, Rural Communities and Remote Areas where there is not the collective density of demand to support commercial operations.
0-5 years
Address the needs of older Australians, women, children and people who speak or read a language other than English by developing nationally consistent performance requirements for transport services that meet diverse user needs for safe, convenient and easy-to-navigate travel. Only invest in transport proposals that include a plan to meet these requirements.
0-5 years
Reduce dependence on car use for a growing population of pet-owners by developing and implementing performance requirements for public transport networks to meet the mobility needs of people travelling with companion animals, in addition to assistance animals.
5-10 years
Enable every person who wants to walk, ride a bike or use a micromobility device for a local journey or last-mile freight delivery to do so safely by completing continuous separated active travel networks.
0-5 years
Ensure active travel education for road users of all abilities and ages has an elevated profile in the updated National Road Safety Strategy. Address the needs of people walking, bike-riding and using micromobility devices, including e-bikes and e-scooters.
0-5 years
Develop, implement and support councils' adoption of standardised designs for separated facilities that use temporary barriers or other quickly installed features. These will widen the choice of simplified, user-friendly, safe, lower-cost and cost-effective infrastructure solutions and accelerate the completion of gap-free networks.
0-5 years
Support councils’ installation and management of small local freight depots on the edge of central business districts. These will enable the use of low-impact microfreight modes for last-mile deliveries in congested areas.
0-5 years
Ensure technical resources support the prioritisation of investments that enable increased travel on foot, by bicycle or wheelchair, or using a micromobility device. Update the Guide to Road Design to include lower-cost and cost-effective active travel facilities and promote access to best practice data collection and modelling for active travel projects through updated Australian Transport Assessment and Planning Guidelines.
0-5 years
Optimise access for pedestrians, bike-riders, microfreight operators and people using a wheelchair or micromobility device by facilitating the revision of the Australian Road Rules to remove regulatory anomalies or obstacles to these outcomes in all jurisdictions:
- the use of lower-cost and cost-effective active travel infrastructure designs
- footpath access for micromobility devices.
0-5 years
Provide an improved and safer active travel experience ahead of the completion of active travel infrastructure improvements by reducing the speed limit on local roads that are identified as links in cycling and micromobility networks, where the existing speed limit is greater than 40 km/h.
0-5 years
Ensure all road users can experience the benefits of world's best practice transport technologies by establishing a single national market for electric, connected and autonomous vehicles.
5-10 years
Enable the longer-term rollout of fleets of electric vehicles that can both return power to, and draw it from, the grid by ensuring the National Construction Code formalises requirements and specifications for providing and operating next-generation two-way charging facilities and associated signage in multi-residential, commercial, industrial and public buildings, including bus depots.
0-5 years
Facilitate the use of both privately owned and shared fleets of light electric vehicles and micromobility devices by ensuring standard and/or two-way charging facilities are installed at kerbside locations, and in public parking areas by the developers of off-street destinations such as shopping centres and long-term car parks.
5-10 years
To bring down purchase costs for bus operators and speed up the rollout of new fleets, develop Australian Design Rules and common cross-jurisdictional technical specifications for zero-emission buses that assist Australian manufacturers and importers in achieving economies of scale.
0-5 years
Ensure that fast-charging facilities for buses (and other zero-emission heavy vehicles) funded under the Future Fuels Strategy are subject to compliance with new cross-jurisdictional technical specifications.
5-10 years
Facilitate the uptake of new transport technologies by developing nationally uniform standards for the design and operation of road and digital assets used by Level 4 and 5 connected and autonomous vehicles. For all new road and major maintenance projects, immediately adopt and implement standards that offer 'no-regrets' benefits for existing and Level 3 vehicle operations, including line marking and digital speed zone standards.
5-10 years
Ensure the data-sharing framework and associated digital infrastructure for gathering and using connected and autonomous vehicle-generated data are designed to support the separate administration of a national distance-based road user charging regime. Also ensure they align with privacy and cyber security requirements.
5-10 years