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Hamilton City Council is currently reviewing Access Hamilton and a new fully updated integrated transport strategy will be launched before the end of 2009.
Access Hamilton is a strategy to deliver a transport network providing affordable, integrated, safe, responsive and sustainable transport choices. |
The Access Hamilton Strategy focuses on how Hamilton’s key transport partners will work together to achieve the following outcomes.
- A well planned city
- Choices for each trip
- Cycling to work
- Distributing goods and services
- Education and awareness
- Enjoyable journeys
- Every trip counts
- Fleet bikes
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- Getting around easily
- Great public transport
- Integrated transport options
- Liveable streets
- Parking
- Personal safety
- Planning across boundaries
- Proofed for the future
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- River walkways
- Sustainable travel options
- Transport hubs
- Travel Demand Management
- Walking to school
- Well connected routes
- Work place showers
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We often take travelling in and around Hamilton for granted, expecting to get to and from where we want to go reliably and with ease. Historically Hamilton has been a car dependent city with traffic volumes rising faster than population growth (Annual average daily traffic counts on the roads).
In 2002 Council started looking at the predicted transport future and realised that unless we change how we approach travel, journeys would take longer, there would be more congestion, which would likely lead to increased adverse effects on safety, health and the environment. In order to change this we needed to understand what the effects of our travel choices are and our actions need to reflect this knowledge. Since 2002 our collective understanding of issues has deepened and our thinking around integrated transport has grown.
Access Hamilton is a strategy to deliver a transport network providing affordable, integrated, safe, responsive and sustainable transport choices.
Recent transport legislation and policy changes have provided a clear direction within the transport sector and changed how transport activities are prioritised and funded. The Access Hamilton Strategy responds to these changes. It sets out a transport vision for the city and the strategic approach that will be taken to achieve this vision. It replaces the Hamilton Integrated Transport Strategy (1999) and incorporates the Hamilton Alternative to Road Transportation Study (2003) and updates the earlier Access Hamilton Strategy.
It’s a balancing act … Access Hamilton seeks to strike a balance between the demands placed on the transport network by the increasing number of cars and upgrading or creating new roads to cope. This balance is necessary. We will plan our land use and transport systems to minimise the need for travel and encourage people to use alternative modes of transport wherever possible in order to manage the growth rate of traffic. Over the last 20 years the traffic growth rate in the city has been 2-3% per year. Over the last five years the growth rate on the arterials that serve the north-eastern growth areas has been about 6% per year. Predicting and providing infrastructure to accommodate continuing growth at that rate without considering travel demand management is not financially or environmentally sustainable.
Although widening roads and building alterative routes will alleviate pressure in some areas it is not a solution that will work in the long-term for every route. A business as usual approach will also not lead us to where we want to be in the future. Successful delivery of the Access Hamilton strategy requires us to continually strive for more efficient, sustainable transport outcomes for our city. This will be undertaken by focusing on four key areas:
- Planning for the future
- Providing for the future
- Understanding our choices
- Managing and adapting for the future
Access Hamilton represents a three level process, comprising:
- The strategy document identifies the strategic aspirations and key principles for the city and sets the guidelines for the programme of ongoing work to deliver on those aspirations
- The Integrated Transport Plan provides a context for decisions, resolving conflict between: competing needs, travel choices and funding affordable, integrated, safe, responsive and sustainable availability. In doing so it will provide Sector Plans that will facilitate multi-modal transport planning and provision in the city.
- Seven Action Plans that translate directions into actions for each transport mode. None of these Action Plans and their projects will work on their own - it is the sum of all of them that will make a difference.
Together, these strategic documents outline how, as transport partners in the city, we will achieve an affordable, integrated, safe, responsive and sustainable transport system. |
