Frequently Asked Questions

The NSW Movement and Place Framework consists of guidance and a supporting toolkit for practitioners and evaluators as well as an Implementation Board and Steering Committee made of senior executive staff from across the NSW Government.

The Framework replaces previous guidance in NSW on Movement and Place, including the draft Road Planning Framework. The Movement and Place Framework and Guides are supplements to the Austroads Guides in relation to Movement and Place in NSW.

Movement and Place is an internationally recognised planning approach that developed from the 2007 publication 'Link & Place: A Guide to Street Planning and Design' by Peter Jones, Natalya Boujenko, and Stephen Marshall. It built on emerging publications and trends in U.K national policy that would follow a more balanced approach to street planning and design based on streets as movement conduits (Links) and destinations in their own right (Places).

Today, the Link & Place approach has evolved and is being implemented and applied by jurisdictions around the world, often under varying names and comprising of different methodologies. The core principles, however, that streets and roads are not just movement conduits but also places in their own right, remain.

The NSW Movement and Place Framework reflects a state-wide shift towards place-based planning and greater land use and transport integration in strategic planning. Movement and Place asks practitioners to develop a clear vision, set of objectives and targets that will support the character of the places and communities we want for the future. This involves taking a collaborative, long-term approach to developing contextual responses that better meet the needs of local people and their environment in a defined geographic location.

No. The NSW Movement and Place Framework recognizes that successful planning of our transport network is best achieved through a whole of Government approach involving all levels of government. It acknowledges the need to coordinate resources on common goals to deliver genuinely sustainable investment.

Yes. Movement and Place is Government Policy in Cabinet endorsed documents, such as the State Infrastructure Strategy, Future Transport 2056, and the Greater Sydney Regional Plan.

There is an underlying theme to both the NSW Movement and Place Framework and Transport for London’s Healthy Streets to improve how streets work for the people that use them, by collaborating on shared outcomes.

However, both approaches operate within different policy and strategic contexts. Healthy Streets implements a citywide health policy agenda. The NSW Movement and Place Framework implements a broader range of land use and transport integration policies and seeks to balance transport, environment, economic development, and health across all of NSW.

Furthermore, Healthy Street Indicators focus on assessing street-level interventions with an emphasis on the human experience in the street. The NSW Movement and Place Framework is designed to cover all project stages and scales with the Built Environment Indicators focussed on a neighbourhood scale within metropolitan and regional contexts. Movement and Place also considers the human experience by taking into account the needs of all users.

Lastly, Healthy Streets assesses existing and proposed layouts for streets against pre-defined measures that act as a kind of checklist. Movement and Place similarly seeks improvement against a selected set of measures, but additionally asks each project to set targets using the Built Environment Indicators based on the project’s role in achieving a broader community-led vision for the place. The indicators are then used to track the current state and compare it to the targets. Where targets have been set, options are assessed against how well they close the gap between the target and the current state.

The principles underlying the Complete Streets approach mirror those in the NSW Movement and Place Framework. Complete Streets operates within a different policy context, and the methodology for application varies depending on the project’s context.

No. The NSW Movement and Place Framework and its principles only apply throughout NSW. Other state jurisdictions have developed, or are in the process of developing their Movement and Place framework and supporting guidance, which does not apply to the NSW context. This is essential information when engaging external stakeholders, such as consultants, to support projects in NSW.

As an overarching principle and network planning and management tool, Movement and Place has been included in the Austroads Guide to Traffic Management (AGTM).

Movement and Place now has a Community of Practice that meets each month via Microsoft Teams to learn from experiences in implementing the Movement and Place Framework, and give input into the guidance documents, tools, and advisory notes as they are being developed.

To join our Community of Practice, please contact the Movement and Place Team at movementandplace@transport.nsw.gov.au 

The Practitioner’s Guide forms part of the wider NSW Movement and Place Framework. The framework underpins our Future Transport strategy in NSW, which outlines as one of the key emerging principles the notion of place-based planning and integrated transport and land-use planning in creating successful places. The Practitioner’s Guide supports built environment practitioners by explaining how to apply this approach to projects and plans.

The Guide is only a single part of the NSW Movement and Place Framework. It is being supported by a series of tools and guidance documents as well as a governance mechanism that oversees and supports the development and wider application of the Framework. The Guide is being applied within an evolving system that includes a number of complimentary guidance being developed over time, as well as a forum for discussion and advice.

Movement and Place is manifested in current NSW Government policies and underpins our Future Transport strategy in NSW, which outlines as one of the key emerging principles the notion of place-based planning and integrated transport and land-use planning in creating successful places, which is one of the strategy’s six outcomes.

The Guide seeks to assist practitioners in taking a Movement and Place approach and supporting built environment practitioners by explaining how to apply this approach to projects and plans.

By using the Guide, practitioners benefit from a common structure for place-based transport and city and town planning across NSW that can guide consultation, analysis, decision-making, and evaluation throughout the life cycle of a plan or project.

The Guide seeks to change some established working practices and standards to produce more consistent, higher quality outcomes, and asks professionals to think differently about their role in creating successful places, an outcome underpinning the Future Transport Strategy 2056[Link] and Connecting to the future: Our 10 Year Blueprint[Link].

Balancing movement and place is the shared responsibility of the various organizations and individuals who plan, design, deliver, and manage our transport networks and the areas around them. This includes both public and private sector decision-makers, planners, engineers, urban designers, and project managers.

Movement and Place is not a new approach in NSW. However, the Guide replaces previous guidance in NSW on Movement and Place, including the draft Road Planning Framework (2017).

Several of the concepts presented in this Guide are new to the Movement & Place approach:

• A six-step process of collaboration has been established as the means of taking a Movement and Place approach;​​​​​​
• New methods are advanced for understanding ‘place’ and ‘movement’;​​​​​​
• Performance indicators have been defined for all projects to report against, grouped into five built environment themes;
• Classification of street environments has been adapted, and its role and purpose redefined;
• A reporting process and template has been developed for documenting progress.

All roads and streets have movement and place qualities, and their compatible relationship needs to be understood to ensure transport projects enhance communities and do not negatively impact the liveability of places.

The Guide can be used to guide a range of movement-related projects at various phases, from a network or city scale to local streets and neighbourhoods both in metropolitan and regional contexts.

To better understand and confirm alignment of the Guide to your project, get in touch with the Movement and Place Team: movementandplace@transport.nsw.gov.au

There are several ways of finding out more about using the Guide.

Workshops and training can be organized, offering an opportunity for practitioners to ask the Movement and Place core team questions about the Guide and broader approach, including issues and opportunities they identified with its application.

If you would like to get directly in touch with the Movement and Place Team, please address your queries to movementandplace@transport.nsw.gov.au

Movement and Place now has a Community of Practice that meets each month via Microsoft Teams to learn from experiences in implementing the Movement and Place Framework, and give input into the guidance documents, tools, and advisory notes as they are developed.

To join our Community of Practice, please contact the team at movementandplace@transport.nsw.gov.au

The principles of the Movement & Place approach have already been applied to several plans and projects in recent years. The Steering Committee has now approved the Guide to release to State Government agencies for testing for 12 months until May 2021. The testing phase will be a period of feedback and review during which we will consider how local government and consultancies will interact with the Guide.

Following this period, the Guide will be updated and formally publicly released.

Movement and Place is a cross-government framework for planning and managing our roads and streets across NSW. The approach is already being used in some agencies. However, the testing phase will be a period of feedback and review during which NSW agencies will consider how local Government and consultancies will interact with the Guide.

Yes. One of the core elements of the Movement and Place approach is collaboration across a wide range of stakeholders. While the Guide can be shared with external partners, it remains in a testing phase within Government for 12 months. Following this period, the Guide will be updated and formally publicly released.

When sharing the Guide with the community during the testing phase, it mainly serves as a communication tool to help better understand the Movement and Place approach to planning interventions. Elements of the Guide can be beneficial at public consultations, workshops, or events, and feedback gathered during that process will inform the updated version of the Guide.

The Movement and Place approach has been applied to projects and plans in Australia for several years and is regarded as an international best practice due to its application in countries around the world. In the absence of a clear guidance document, the principles of Movement and Place, however, have not been consistent across plans and projects in NSW, making it difficult to assess the success of projects in place-based transport planning.

As several of the concepts presented in this Guide are updated from previous understandings of Movement and Place, the 12-months testing period will serve as an opportunity for project teams and practitioners to apply the Guide for new as well as on-going plans and projects.

To share and learn from some of the experiences of project teams applying the Movement and Place approach, a Community of Practice has been established that meets monthly. If you want to attend future meetings, please get in touch with movementandplace@transport.nsw.gov.au

Movement and Place now has a Community of Practice that meets each month via Microsoft Teams to learn from experiences in implementing the Movement and Place Framework, and give input into the guidance documents, tools, and advisory notes as they are being developed.

To join our Community of Practice, please contact the Movement and Place Team at movementandplace@transport.nsw.gov.au

Initially, a local government may be part of some or all of the steps of the core process if they are part of the stakeholder group or may provide expert advice – e.g. strategic planning or local transport planning.

A local government may decide to apply the Movement & Place approach to their projects and may choose to use any TfNSW public resources.

Information on how and when to apply the Movement & Place framework can be obtained in the Practitioners Guide, accompanying Advisory Notes as well as a series of workshops and training events available to local government practitioners. 

Upon update of the Practitioner's Guide in 2021, the local government will be informed about its public release.

Consultants may be leading or participating in some or all of the steps of the core process if they are part of the project management team and or providing or may provide expert advice.  A consultancy may also be an interested party – giving advice such as economic analysis – providing evidence to support, or documenting, the outcomes from the core process.

Information on how and when to apply the Movement & Place framework can be obtained in the Practitioners Guide, accompanying Advisory Notes as well as a series of workshops and training events available to local government practitioners. 

Upon update of the Practitioner's Guide in 2021, external stakeholders will be informed about its public release.

The period of feedback and update to the Guide is planned to last until mid-2021. Any critical changes will be made iteratively during this time.

The Movement and Place Implementation Board and Core team will be consulted when making significant changes to the Guide if required. Feedback from project teams will be considered by the core team on behalf of TfNSW.

Yes. The Guide outlines a six-step core process that can be applied to any project and plan. Similar to any new project or plan, project managers of inflight projects will need to demonstrate which of the six steps in the core process are relevant to the project or plan when taking a Movement and Place approach.

Aim to use existing work where possible and use the core process to elaborate on and complete the steps outlined in the Guide. Check whether or to what extent the compiled inputs and outputs of previously undertaken work align with those recommended in the Guide.

An Advisory Note [Link] has been prepared to offer guidance and recommendations to project managers seeking to align their inflight projects with the Movement and Place approach. Projects or plans that have already commenced or are near completion can use this note for confirming or, if necessary, correcting the course of a project or plan to ensure compatibility with a Movement and Place approach

Similar to any new project or plan, project managers of inflight projects will need to demonstrate which of the six steps in the core process are relevant to the project or plan when taking a Movement and Place approach.

Projects may use work undertaken in line with complementary international best practice or planning approaches, such as Transport for London's Healthy Streets assessments, or the Complete Streets approach. Many of the underlying principles are similar to the place-based planning approach in NSW and have informed the development of the NSW Movement and Place Framework.

To ensure these approaches and policies are relevant to the NSW context, project teams need to assess the inputs and outputs of the individual steps of the Core Process outlined in the Practitioner's Guide to Movement and Place and reflect on the key considerations set out in the Advisory Note for Inflight Projects. [Link]

The closer a project or plan is to finalisation, the more likely it is that project teams have already identified a set of potential options or a preferred option. Regardless of how far advanced a project is, when communicating a preferred option to the appropriate decision-makers and stakeholders, compatibility with a Movement and Place approach requires project teams to demonstrate a shared understanding of how transport networks are integrated with land use and public space within the study area, and how they serve users' needs.

An Advisory Note [Link] has been prepared to offer guidance and recommendations to project managers seeking to align their inflight projects with the Movement and Place approach.

The timeline will depend on which stage your project is at, timeline constraints, and existing work to date. The importance placed on individual steps of the core process is based on the context, purpose, and scope of the project, but should not be discarded based on barriers such as timeline constraints or budgets.

If the impact of the project or plan on places has not been adequately considered, teams risk having conditions placed on their projects. They will need to provide this additional information post project completion. 

Practitioners specialising in movement (e.g. transport planning and traffic engineering) and place (e.g. strategic planning, urban design, and landscape architecture) have a shared accountability to foster a well-designed built environment including effective transport networks.

Misalignment with the core process should not be taken as preventing more integrated methods of working, including interdisciplinary practitioners, more workshops, co-design with joint practitioner teams, or co-design with the community.

In situations where particular steps of the core process are not required or are deemed insufficient concerning scale and scope of the project, the Guide can still be used to guide projects at various phases of the life cycle – i.e. Policy and planning (early stages) and design, delivery, operation or maintenance (later stages).

'Place' subject matter experts are those who represent the places (i.e. the community, institutions, business, and local authorities) as well as those who foster, care for, and manage places, such as town centre managers, and community service providers. Important stakeholders for place also include Aboriginal custodians and the Heritage Council.

Depending on the scale of the project, the project's core team will need to comprise capability in spatial planning and strategy (land-use planning; strategic urban design) as well as detailed design actions (road design, urban design, landscape design).

The key to understanding place is to consult the right expertise in the right part of the process to deliver the best outcomes.

'Movement' subject matter experts are those who plan, design, deliver, operate and maintain our roads and streets. This includes representatives from modal teams as well as road designers, traffic engineers, transport modellers and transport planners. It is essential to recognise the different managers and owners of transport infrastructure and assets across the network. Local Councils, operators, service providers as well as customers and the community who uses the transport network are important stakeholders for 'movement'.

Depending on the scale of the project, the project's core team will need to comprise capability in transport planning as well as assessment and delivery (traffic engineering, land-use integration, structure planning, and evaluation).

The key to understanding place is to consult the right expertise in the right part of the process to deliver the best outcomes.

The core team composition may vary from individuals with interdisciplinary skills and "design thinking", through to specialist teams coordinated by a project manager, depending on the scale of the project. Typically the core team skills would include:

• Early Stages: Capability in spatial planning and strategy (transport planning, strategic land-use planning, strategic urban design) and project management.
• Later Stages: Capability in detailed design actions (road design, urban design, landscape design), assessment and delivery (traffic engineering, land-use integration, structure planning, evaluation), and project delivery, management, and monitoring.​​​​​

Workshops and meetings should include a balance of movement and place practitioners and relevant key stakeholders, depending on the project, location, and extent of work already completed. Where possible, directly involve the community in workshops.

Typically workshop participants would include:

• Larger Scale: Core project team; representatives from all relevant local and State government agencies; other key stakeholders, including industry and community groups, local custodians and members of the local community; subject matter experts (~ 20 people)
• Smaller Scale: Core project team, including a representative from each key delivery agency and council as community representative (4–8 people)

The below figure shows how the core process supplements existing evaluation processes.

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Core Process alignment with existing evaluation processes

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The Implementation Board guides the application of the Movement & Place Framework in NSW, leading and guiding engagement with the sector in the effective delivery of movement and place outcomes.

One of the key tasks of the Board will be to review projects seeking to use a movement and place approach in NSW that are referred to the Board or are identified by the Board for review. The Board provides:

• Guidance on the application of the Movement and Place Framework;
• Endorsement of proposed methodologies for and outcomes of a movement and place assessment

The Board identifies emerging issues and opportunities to evolve the movement and place approach to be addressed in future revisions of the Practitioners' Guide and Toolkit. The Board may form sub-committees concerning those issues or identify resources to assist with the resolution of those issues.

If you need to get in touch with the Implementation Board, please e-mail: movementandplace@transport.nsw.gov.au

No. The alignment of projects with the Movement and Place approach will be assessed through the evaluation framework established by the Evaluator's Guide to Movement and Place [Link].

Projects can be referred to the Board based on different reasons, including the relevance of the project to government agencies, widespread interest within the industry, complexity or scale. There are three types of project referrals:

1. Formal referral through assurance review
2. Informal referral by a Board member
3. Self-referral by a project manager or one of their counterparts

The Executive Steering Committee is made up of Deputy Secretaries from Transport for NSW, Department of Planning, Industry, and Environment, and Infrastructure NSW, Department of Premier and Cabinet and Treasury. The Steering Committee provides high-level coordination of Movement and Place across the NSW Government and meets regularly to approve Movement and Place relevant guidance or policies.