Making plans for walking in Queensland

Mount Isa City Council was one of the local governments that piloted walking network planning guidance (Image credit: The State of Queensland)
Department/Agency: Department of Transport and Main Roads

Action 1.4, Action Plan for Walking 2019–2021

Research and adopt best practice guidelines for creating accessible connected walking precincts and network planning. Pilot in a variety of locations and settings including town centres, public transport hubs, schools and other activity centres.

Overview

This project created up to date guidance for local governments and other stakeholders on how to plan walking networks in the catchments around key destinations such as main streets, public transport stations and public facilities. The guidance includes advice on how to prioritise changes to improve the walking environment in the catchment. 

Achievements

To increase the number of people walking we need walkable communities and places. Through this project, the Department of Transport and Main Roads (TMR) developed and published up to date guidance for Queensland local governments and others with a transport planning responsibility to plan and implement safe, attractive, direct, inclusive and comfortable walking environments.

The project reviewed existing guidance from around the world to identify preferred guidelines to pilot. We chose to test two existing guidelines and adapt them into an approach for Queensland circumstances: Guidelines for Developing Principal Pedestrian Networks (State of Victoria, 2015) and the Walkability Improvement Tool (Queensland Treasury, 2020).

The published walking network planning (WNP) guidance outlines a staged approach and includes supporting resources to:

• create a GIS-based network plan in a 1km and 2km catchment around the key destination
• run a stakeholder engagement workshop
• prioritise and plan works, budgets and funding schedules to implement improvements to walking environments.

Three pilot local governments helped to test the process: Logan City Council, Gladstone Regional Council and Mount Isa City Council (see Action Summary 2.1). Their input was invaluable for refining the guidelines so that they are fit for purpose across the range of scales and geographies that the state encompasses.

Danielle Slade, Mayor of Mount Isa City Council, said:

'While Mount Isa’s existing footpath network is extensive, we are aware that it also contains many gaps and missing important linkages…This [plan] will assist Council to prioritise works in the future, in order to make this network more user-friendly and cohesive.'

Next steps

We will be using the WNP guidance to deliver walking network plans in selected local governments, in partnership with the Department of Transport and Main Roads (TMR) Districts and other stakeholders.

More information

The full suite of guidance is available to view on the Walking Network Planning pages on the TMR website.