Draft NSW Walking Strategy

 

 

Draft NSW Walking Strategy - What's Happening 

In September 2011, the NSW Government released NSW 2021 which includes a target to increase walking for short trips and a commitment to develop a NSW Walking Strategy. Development of a NSW draft Walking Strategy is being managed by a whole-of-government steering group chaired by PCAL. Walking programs are also being reviewed as part of work on a new Long Term Transport Masterplan for NSW.

The draft NSW Walking Strategy will establish broad policy principles and initial steps required to guide the NSW Government's investment in walking over the next 10 years - including but not restricted to planning and design, safety and behaviour change programs. The strategy will complement plans for other modes of travel and will also help to achieve a number of other NSW 2021 targets, including increased public transport use, increased active travel and increased use of parks and recreational facilities.

Background Studies

For more information on the NSW Walking Strategy and background reports prepared to date, click on these links:

Walking for Travel and Recreation in NSW: What the Data Tells Us

A Walking Strategy for NSW - Assessing the Benefits of Walking

NSW Walking Strategy - Literature Review

NSW Walking Strategy - Stakeholder Engagement Report

Estimating the Benefits of Walking - A Cost Benefit Methodology

Work already completed on the strategy includes a Report detailing current walking levels in NSW based on a review of existing NSW walking related data. A Literature Review has also been prepared that incorporates relevant research and current NSW Government Agency activities and policy documents relevant to the promotion of walking for travel and walking for recreation in NSW. The review also incorporates policy documents from other jurisdictions, where relevant, and makes initial suggestions about opportunities for action in NSW.

PCAL also invited a range of non-state government stakeholders to share their knowledge and ideas about walking at a workshop held on October 25, 2010. Comment was also sought from a number of additional stakeholders who were unavailable to attend the workshop. The outcomes from the workshop and feedback from those unable to attend the face-to-face meeting have been summarised in a Stakeholder Engagement Report.

As part of the suite of background studies that were commissioned to inform the development of the draft Walking Strategy a proposed cost benefit methodology for estimating the financial benefits of walking has been released. The report estimated the benefits of achieving a 5% and 10% switch to walking of vehicle trips of less than one km in length (less than a ten minute walk) in the greater Sydney Metropolitan area. Utilising the proposed methodology of factors to be considered in active travel cost benefit analyses, the authors estimated benefits of $134 million and $214 million respectively as a result of a switch to walking. The report also highlights that at present only the additional time costs of walking components within multimodal appraisals are considered and an opportunity exists to include a quantification of walking benefits across all future multimodal transport appraisals. A literature review of recent active travel cost benefit analyses has been compiled.

For useful information on walking, you can go to:

Office of Environment and Heritage: Find Walking Tracks in Parks and Reserves http://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/NationalParks/searchwalking.aspx

Communities NSW - Sport and Recreation: Walking for Pleasure http://www.dsr.nsw.gov.au/active/whatson_walk.asp

The Sydney Green Map: http://sydneygreenmap.lpma.nsw.gov.au/

Walking, visit NSW: http://www.visitnsw.com/Walking_NSW_P884.aspx