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Provision of adequate access to bus services and railway systems significantly improves the transport amenity of the neighbourhood. Understandably, mutual cooperation with public transport service providers and traffic authorities are important in successful integration of public transport facilities.

The cornerstone of the concept of transport oriented development is the integration with public transport systems.

Importance of public transport

Property value is directly proportional to the accessibility of public transport services. In Australian cities about 50% of children travel to school by public transport. Also, in some central business areas up to 80% of commuters reach their work place using public transport system. Therefore access to public transport is important to the current and future viability of any development.

Superior efficiency of public transport systems in handling large volumes of passengers is an often overlooked aspect. The amount of natural resources consumed in carrying an individual by bus is many times smaller than transport using car. Railway is even more efficient. The public is becoming aware of environmental friendliness of public transport use and its low emission levels per person transported.

The use of public transport is also important for recreational and social activities of residents who must not drive home after consumption of alcohol.

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Key Issues

Risks

Insufficient take-up rate of public transport system is a potential problem, as Australia is a car-oriented society. A key loser of this situation is the public transport operator, who is then be forced to cut back on services and this in turn makes the public transport less attractive in this particular development context. It is now known that this phenomenon of lack of interest in public transport is a consequence of public transport lagging behind the launch of the development. It is important to have the public transport system in place and operational at the time of first attracting public to the development. When the public transport is lagging, residents may elect to buy a second and third car and remove public transport from their options list.

There can be problems stemming from lack of proper maintenance and vandalism of public space.

There can be problems with unreliable services provided by the transport service provider. This is a problem beyond the control of the developer, but may have an impact on residents (particularly on weekends). For retail and office developments this could result in loss of revenue.

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Savings

In some instances for retail and office developments, it may be possible to trade-off parking requirements in lieu of provision of public transport. It may be feasible to impose high parking charges and increase the parking revenue when satisfactory public transport options are integrated.

The largest saving is from the increase in letable space in retail and office developments that may result from efficient use of access system. Public transport brings in large quantities of people with relatively little access space requirements.

Better utilisation of space is a specific outcome of successful application of the concept of transit oriented development.

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Costs

Costs perceived by the community would be mainly in the area of quality and quantity of access infrastructure provided to reach the public transport system. Access infrastructure is mainly in the form of continuous footpaths although there is no reason to overrule other means of access such as a shuttle bus services and travelators to a nearby railway station. Certain types of developments may be able to justify a taxi rank as well.

Provision of large infrastructure for public transport facilities is relevant for retail centre development. Such developers may experience costs in providing bus access lanes, parking bays and shelters. Examples for such large scale integration are:

1. Pagewood shopping centre in Sydney.
2. Western Sydney Tway integration to shopping centres.
3. Integration of railway to Sydney Airport.

There are significant costs associated with integration of public transport systems to a development at the planning stage. Negotiations with operators and traffic authorities could be time consuming until safety concerns, efficiency requirements and traffic issues are satisfactorily resolved. There are also ongoing costs with lighting, policing and maintenance of these facilities.

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Barriers

Some neighbours may see bus stops and railway stations as sources of noise, high level of traffic and locations that harbour undesirable elements at times. If noise is a real issue, there are remedial methods that can be discussed with an acoustics expert. Traffic problems can be in the form of pedestrian traffic or feeder vehicle traffic issues. These can be evaluated by a competent traffic professional. Issues with mischievous activities associated with public transport infrastructure have to be dealt with in cooporation with law enforcement authorities, social workers and even perpetrators. It is important to work with the community to ease these fears.

Transport operators need reliable demand prediction data to plan their future operations. Inability to provide a revenue security to the transport operators can be barrier to cooperation from the public transport sector. Also, developers need to understand that transport operators have other established demand centres and the current development needs to fit into a coherent network. It is important to understand that traffic authorities and transport service providers are important stakeholders.

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Benchmarks

Australia does not have performance benchmarks related to integration of public transport systems. In other words, there is nothing to say that the particular development has to achieve a certain public transport mode share.

However, there are specifications for level of service that can be applied in the context of public transport. The limit of the acceptable walking distance to a bus stop is considered to be 400 m. A larger value, 1 km is applied in walking to railway stations.

For residential developments, this means the bus stops have to be placed within 400 m of the target population. The 400 m has been selected as that distance can be covered in about 5 minutes by the average adult walking speed. Office developments in particular, should consider even smaller access distances to bus stops if they intend to encourage high-heel wearers to use public transport.

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Development phase actions

Feasibility

A single residential development is unlikely be able to change the route or network structure of the public transport system in the short term. Therefore, investigate the public transport options available (and planned) in the vicinity, say 2 km radius area and try to take advantage of existing public transport system. An access system to a nearby railway station or ferry terminal can be considered. If there is a bus route in the vicinity, the operator may be agreeable to consider adding or changing bus stop locations. In Sydney, some residential developments have been successful in receiving express bus stops on the strength of the high level of demand the developments generated.

Retail, industrial and office developments have more to gain by an efficient public transport access while transport operators can gain much from the transport demand created. Therefore, it is important to consider provision of access systems for all available public transport options. Negotiations with operators should commence to understand their limitations and requirements.

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Planning

Residential developments should provide a safe and pleasant environment to the access paths and focus points such as bus stops. What is important to the transport operator is the ability to pick up a significant quantity of passengers at no or very little detour. No detour can be justified if buses are relatively full by the time they reach the particular development to pickup passengers. Some detour maybe possible if the average occupancy level is low at this stage and the potential number of passengers to be picked up is high. A traffic plan could be developed by a professional.

Retail, office and industrial developments need to plan for integration of the public transport system. In some instances, this could involve planning for pedestrian connection facilities to the development from a railway station, ferry terminal or bus transitway station. In the other extreme are situations where the developer has agreed to provide for a bus interchange or a railway station within the development. In these developments, a detailed traffic analysis will be required that extends to analysis of the traffic system in the roads and intersections in the vicinity of the development.

The objective at the planning stage is to maximise public transport opportunities available to link up with the urban and regional transport network. Often this may be achieved through provision for a feeder bus service to the nearest railway station and bus interchange.

It may be possible to have a bus service but avoid having regular bus stops. There are a number of successful hail and ride services attempted in Australia, usually, when the forecast demand is relatively low.

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Design

Width of access paths should be sufficient for the forecast pedestrian flows.
Australian standards for design of pedestrian facilities and bicycle facilities are documented by Austroads.

Adequate lighting, seating and shelter have to be considered. Sutherland Council DCP for bus shelters and seats may be useful as a guide.

Complex public transport facilities may be designed when a substantial amount of public transport demand is estimated. In such conditions, bus interchanges and railway stations maybe designed. An example is Waverley Council DCP for bus depot. Adequate signage and information systems have to be designed to assist potential public transport users.

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Construction

Construction of pedestrian access links and other public transport infrastructure may occur alongside operating roadways. Therefore, partial or complete road closures may be required during the construction phase. Adequate safety precautions should be set in place to ensure safe operating practice related to road closures and construction.

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Lot Creation

The lot creation should consider requirements of public transport operators and users. Users of the public transport need the access distance and approach complexity to be kept low. As mentioned earlier, for a bus service, an access distance of 400 m can be considered. When the housing density is planned to vary in different parts of the development, it is prudent to place the higher density lots near the planned bus stops and access to other public transport services. This strategy would allow the average access distance to be kept low.

The transport operator wants to do their task efficiently without wasting much time to service the pickup and drop off points. These should be located close to the existing network and where possible avoid meandering roads for the proposed public transport route.

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Completion

Well maintained public transport infrastructure is important to the success of public transport system and perceptions about the development. Regular cleaning services are required because public transport spaces experience a high amount of foot traffic. At intervals, information panels have to be checked for accuracy and possible defacing or deterioration.

There may be reasons to redesign public transport facilities or renegotiate service frequency with operators when the public transport usage increases. Therefore, it is important to have a public transport demand monitoring procedure in place that alerts the developer to the need for further action.

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CUTA, 1985 Canadian Transit Handbook, Canadian Urban Transit Authority, Toronto.

Austroads, 2002 A Guide for Traffic Engineers - Road-Based Public Transport and High Occupancy Vehicles, AP-G71/02, Austroads. Sydney.

Austroads, 2002 Improving the Intergration of Public Transport Services, AP-R197/02, Austroads, Sydney.

Austroads, 2002 Guide to Traffic Engineering Practice Part 13: Pedestrians, Austroads, Sydney.

Austroads (2002) Guide to Traffic Engineering Practice Part 14: Bicycles, Austroads, Sydney.