Holistic transport solutions, the key to better connectivity

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That’s what transport planners do so now. Rather than just looking at planning for trains or roads or bicycles, we’re trying to look at it holistically.

Graham McCabe View Profile

During the interview, he shared his expertise on transport planning, public transport system design, and designing for walking and cycling. He addressed how governments can tackle the growing problems our cities face by designing better urban transport solutions.

“The governments around Australia are working really hard at improving how we plan transport,” Graham says.

“Infrastructure itself – whether it’s a road or a railway line – that’s an outcome. That comes from someone working out that there’s a level of demand between two or more locations, and then trying to work out the best way to actually connect those people.”

He cited efforts made by the New South Wales government, such as their Future Transport 2056 plan and WestConnex.

“WestConnex has a lot of people who are quite opposed to it at the moment. But, the new M5 that’s being built, that is as a result of transport planning and traffic planning that was done in the 1980s and 1990s, and it’s taken that long to get it onto the ground.

“That’s what transport planners do so now. Rather than just looking at planning for trains or roads or bicycles, we’re trying to look at it holistically.”

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We take the existing systems and provide tweaks to enhance its capacity.

Graham McCabe View Profile

Graham sees transport planning as the key to designing an efficient city.

“Transport planning can lead, so it can work with land use planning on making sure that people who don’t need to travel have the services, opportunities, jobs and education, near them.

“So, you look at any inner-city area within our capitals, and people can walk to basically everything they need or hop on a bike, or now an electric scooter. But they’ve also got a dense web of public transport services.”

He sees that people are becoming increasingly concerned with how close their amenities are to their houses yet are still focused on the freedom of yard-space within their own homes. He says that we need to focus on connecting the local community, so people aren’t going to travel long distances just to get to their neighbours on the other side of the railway.

“We take the existing systems and provide tweaks to enhance its capacity.”

For more of Graham’s insights to how transport planning should be approached in our cities, listen to his interview below.