Sustainable Transport

A Connected and Liveable City

Sustainable Transport in the City of Port Phillip

Council has a vision for Port Phillip to be a connected and liveable city where residents, visitors and workers can live and travel car free by improving the convenience, safety, accessibility and range of sustainable travel choices across our City.

On 22 August 2011 Council formally adopted a suite of new sustainable transport documents focused on achieving this vision. These take the form of the:

Sustainable Transport Strategy - which provides a unifying vision for sustainable transport and will guide decision making in the City of Port Phillip
Bike Plan - sets out proposed strategies and actions to improve bike riding in the City of Port Phillip over the timeframe 2011-2020
Walk Plan - sets out proposed strategies and actions to improve walking in the City of Port Phillip over the timeframe 2011-2020

The strategy and plans will help Council, together with the community, take action on climate change by encouraging the use of sustainable transport modes that minimise energy use. The Walk and Bike Plans also aim to enhance liveability in our municipality by outlining projects to improve our streets and public spaces for walking and bike riding.

Consultation

Council recently concluded a one month consultation exercise to gauge community feedback on the draft documents. During this period people were able to comment on the plans via surveys (either online or hardcopy) or by speaking to Councillors or Council staff at one of the three feedback sessions held at different locations within Port Phillip. Key stakeholders were also invited to comment on the draft documents.

In total there were 49 responses to the community survey. Survey results show strong support for the Council's vision for sustainable transport (73.1 per cent of respondents supported the vision), and overall support for the draft strategy (40.9 per cent of people supported the strategy as is and 40.9 per cent supported the strategy with some changes). Some of the key issues for people concerned changes to the parking hierarchy for local and shopping streets, the need to address parking issues caused by visitors to the many events taking place within Port Phillip and improvements to the public transport system.

There was strong support for the draft Walk and Bike Plans 2011-2020. 77.8 per cent of respondents supported the draft Walk Plan in its current form and 16.7 per cent supported the plan with changes. 61.1 per cent of people supported the draft Bike Plan in its current form and 22.2 per cent supported the document with changes. Some of the projects people would like to see included in the draft Bike Plan 2011-2020 were ones to improve bike connections to the city and to provide a more consistent approach to the provision of bike infrastructure.

The results from the survey will be collated with other community and key stakeholder engagement undertaken throughout the consultation period and will be used to help inform Council's decision making about sustainable transport policy.

Background

Community consultation in 2010

The new sustainable transport documents are a result of previous research and community consultation including:

• BikeScope Online Consultation Survey

Bicycle Victoria was commissioned to undertake a survey of bike riding activity in the City of Port Phillip. Over 1,200 responses were collected between 8 July and 16 August 2010. The results of the survey are summarised in the BikeScope Online Consultation Survey report.

• Initial Community Consultation

Initial community consultation on the issue of walking and bike riding was undertaken between 18 and 29 November 2010. An online survey and face-to-face interviews were used to collect a total of 323 responses. Interviews were conducted at three community locations (Bay Street, South Melbourne Market and Elwood shops) as well as at the Port Melbourne and St. Columba's Primary Schools. The results of the consultation are summarised in the Walking and Bike Riding Study Report.

• Community Travel Mode Shift Scenarios to Achieve Toward Zero Transport Strategy Targets

In order to inform the draft Sustainable Transport Strategy, an external consultant was commissioned to develop mode share scenarios to achieve a 50% per capita reduction in transport greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 (relative to 2006 levels). The scenarios were based on an analysis of the Victorian Integrated Survey of Travel and Activity 2007/08 to establish City of Port Phillip resident travel patterns, as well as emissions intensity factors developed by the Department of Transport to estimate the marginal greenhouse gas emissions from this travel. Information on these scenarios can found in the Community Travel Mode Shift Scenarios to Achieve Toward Zero Transport Strategy Targets document.