The integration of land use and transport planning has been the goal of many practitioners and policy makers for some time. However, all too often transport and urban environments are still planned reactively. Accessibility models provide a tool for assessing the three main components of travel demand, being land use, demographics and the transport network. Changing one or more of these elements will affect accessibility. Examples of opportunities for accessibility planning include identifying areas where improved access to health facilities is needed (providing more destinations); diverting public transport services to better serve residential areas (changing the utility of the connection); or encouraging people to live in areas already accessible by public transport to employment opportunities (changing origins). This paper explores the principles of accessibility planning, provides a review of the current situation in Australia with reference to international practice, and offers examples of opportunities to use accessibility planning techniques to improve transport and urban planning in Australia. (Author/publisher) For the covering entry of this conference, please see ITRD abstract no. E214755.
Abstract