Movement and Place

Movement and Place is a concept that recognises streets have two different and sometimes competing roles - to transport people and goods (movement) and as destinations in their own right (place). Compare Shepperton Road and Albany Highway in Victoria Park, for example.

It's important to plan whether streets will primarily be used for movement or place, or a combination of both, as prioritising one role impacts the other.

Creating great places for Western Australians to live, work and play is an important priority for the State Government. For Perth, this means creating a compact, consolidated and connected city.

A growing population will place greater demand to make better use of resources and infrastructure, including our streets, as more frequent use will highlight the competing demands for road space.

The movement and place roles of streets have traditionally been dealt with separately; therefore, complementary outcomes are not always achieved. This has resulted in movement and place being treated as two separate functions, leading to segregation rather than integration. 

Finding an agreed position between the competing roles and taking an integrated transport and land use planning approach to managing streets and roads will help resolve conflicting movement and place-based priorities when planning and designing streets and urban corridors.

The framework will classify streets based on an agreed matrix, which will lead to better coordinated and more consistent urban planning across Western Australia.

The matrix system will classify streets by comparing their movement and place requirements. Once a classification is reached, street environments can then be planned, developed and operated according to this agreement.

As a decision-making tool, WA’s Movement and Place Framework will help settle conflict over the competing transport and destination roles of streets, avoiding the need to negotiate these functions during urban planning.

The Movement and Place Framework is being developed by DoT in collaboration with a Technical Reference Group including representatives from Main Roads, the Public Transport Authority, Department of Planning, Lands and Heritage, METRONET, Road Safety Commission and the WA Local Government Association. 

The Movement and Place project is being undertaken in three phases.

Phase one - complete 

Phase one took place during 2019 and included:  

• a literature review and appraisal of the Movement and Place frameworks in other Australian and international jurisdictions; and 
• a study trip to Melbourne and Sydney to meet with transport and land use practitioners, discuss the implementation and use of Movement and Place in the respective states, and view example sites where the Movement and Place concept has been successfully applied.

Phase two - current

The scope for Phase two aligns and builds on the recommendations and findings from Phase one. 

Phase two includes:

• developing a Movement and Place Framework suitable for use in WA to strategically consider and resolve competing transport and land use objectives, avoiding the need to negotiate these functions at the planning stage of individual developments;
• testing the suitability of the framework, including components and processes, using several test scenarios for a range of Perth metropolitan streets and roads; and
• agreeing on an appropriate governance and custodianship model between the Western Australian Planning Commission and the Transport Portfolio.

Phase three - scope

This phase is likely to include broader release, comment on and refinement of the Framework as well as presentations to introduce the Framework to its intended users.