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Regional Land Transport Strategies – Role in district plan preparation

An RLTS can usefully inform the preparation of district plans in the following ways.

• Identifying the potential impact of changing land use patterns and trends. This is necessary to predict land transport requirements in the future. In larger regions, transport models are used which input land use activity data to project the number of trips generated. Altering land use or growth assumptions will result in a consequential change in transport need.
• Ensuring that subdivision and development is appropriately sited to capitalise on existing transport systems. A reduction in levels of service through inappropriate land use decisions may lead to unnecessary expenditure on safety or capacity improvements in the future. This aspect of an RLTS should be kept explicitly in mind when evaluating plan changes and reviewing current plans.
• Making appropriate provision for alternative modes of travel to the car. This could, for example, take the form of retail developments providing for public transport or new central city developments requiring things such as onsite facilities for bicycles.
• Identifying where and when infrastructure improvements are required so that land use planning can take these into account (eg, acoustic insulation of noise-sensitive activities or locating them away from existing or future arterial transport corridors).
• Outlining travel demand management measures particularly in relation to parking supply and demand (eg, a central city office development with plenty of car parking could discourage employees from using alternative transport options such as public transport).