How to Get Transport Right: 10 Lessons for Local Government

Key Takeaways

• Start with a Clear Vision
  ​Define the kind of community you want before planning transport. Let your vision for people and places, not vehicles, guide decisions.
  ​
• Integrate Transport and Land Use
  ​Plan transport and land use together so people can access daily needs without a car, fostering healthier, more connected neighbourhoods.
  ​
• Create Places People Want to Be
  ​Design streets as destinations, not just routes for cars, so people linger, socialise, and support local businesses.
  ​
• Don’t Try to Build Your Way Out of Congestion
  ​More roads often mean more traffic. Focus on reducing car dependency by improving alternatives such as walking, cycling, and public transport.
• ​
• Rethink Parking
  ​Price parking appropriately and use revenue for community improvements. This supports businesses, reduces congestion, and frees up valuable land.
  ​
• Slow Down Traffic
  ​Lower speed limits and slow traffic to make streets safer, quieter, and more welcoming for everyone.
  ​
• Invest in Walking and Cycling Infrastructure
  ​Build high-quality, connected networks for walking and cycling to encourage active travel and reduce car trips.
  ​
• Reduce Car Dependency with Sharing
  ​Promote car sharing and carpooling to reduce private car ownership and free up urban space.
  ​
• Your team needs different skills for different transport modes
  ​Equip your team with expertise in community engagement, active transport, and project management to deliver effective, people-focused projects.
  ​
• Advocate Strategically for Investment
  ​Lobby higher levels of government for essential transport improvements, focusing on clear priorities and strong, evidence-based cases.

What Next?

Which lesson do you need to address first?

Introduction

Picture your community's main street on a busy afternoon. Is it a place where families stroll comfortably, where elderly residents can cross safely, where local cafes spill onto wide footpaths? Or is it dominated by the roar of traffic, exhaust fumes, and drivers hunting desperately for parking?

The difference between these two scenarios is the result of transport decisions made by people just like you.

Nearly twenty years ago, I was elected as a local Councillor who wanted to support my community, but absolutely no idea how transport policy worked. I quickly learned that transport shapes everything about how our communities function. Get it right, and you create thriving high streets, safe school routes, and great neighbourhoods. Get it wrong, and you end up with congested roads, struggling businesses, and communities divided by traffic.

This guide is an overview of what I wish someone had explained to me back then. It's written for the Councillors, mayors, and senior executives in local government, as well as community groups fighting for better local outcomes.

I'm focusing primarily on local governments that manage urban planning, local roads, and infrastructure, but don't run public transport services. Whether you're overseeing a bustling inner-city area, sprawling suburbs, or rural townships, these principles apply. The specific solutions might vary, but the underlying lessons remain the same.

The old approach to transport planning, predict how many more cars we'll have and build roads to accommodate them, has failed spectacularly. It has given us more congestion, more pollution, and less livable communities. Fortunately, there's a better way, and it starts with asking a simple question: What kind of place do we want this to be?

So let's dive into the ten lessons that can transform your community's transport future.

Lesson 1 - Start with a Clear Vision

If you don't decide what kind of place you want your community to be, transport will decide for you. And it won't be pretty.

For decades, transport planners operated under a simple but flawed philosophy called 'predict and provide'. They'd forecast how many more cars would be on the roads in ten years, then build the infrastructure to handle them. The result? Communities designed around traffic flow rather than human flourishing, places with six-lane arterials cutting through neighbourhoods, vast car parks, and streets so hostile to pedestrians that a simple trip to the corner shop requires a car.

The good news is that transport planning is undergoing a revolution. Instead of starting with traffic projections, the new approach begins with a fundamental question: What do we want this place to feel like?

This is vision-led planning, and it flips the traditional process on its head. Rather than asking "how do we move more cars faster?", it asks "how do we create places where people want to spend time?" The transport system then becomes a tool for achieving that vision, not the master that dictates it.

But you need to have a vision worth pursuing. Not the generic, buzzword-laden statements that plague government documents ("a vibrant, sustainable, connected community"), but a clear picture of the human experience you're trying to create.

Ask yourself: when someone walks down your high street, what should they see, hear, and feel? Should your town centre be a place where teenagers can safely hang out after school? Where elderly residents feel comfortable walking to the library? Where parents don't think twice about letting their children cycle to the local park?

Many of the world's best places have often been transformed from traffic-choked thoroughfares into desirable dining and shopping strips. Usually, these visions weren’t about traffic management; they were about creating a place where people would want to linger, shop, and socialise. The transport changes followed from that vision.

Your vision might be different. A rural town will choose different priorities from those of a suburban area, which in turn will differ from those of an urban centre.

The key is being specific about the experience you're creating.

Lesson 2 - Integrate Transport and Land Use

Walk through many places, and you'll see the consequences of transport planners and urban planners working in separate silos: train stations without housing and amenities nearby, and homes miles away from amenities.

This is the result of decades of planning decisions that treated transport and land use as completely separate issues. Transport planners focused on moving vehicles efficiently, while urban planners focused on zoning and development approval. Neither group talked much to the other, and communities paid the price.

Three planning concepts, once considered best practice, have systematically made our communities less liveable:

Parking minimums forced every new development to provide a minimum number of car spaces, regardless of whether they were needed. The result? Vast seas of asphalt that make everything further apart and more car-dependent.

Exclusionary zoning separated where people live from where they work, shop, and play. Suddenly, every trip required a car because walking to the corner shop wasn't an option; there was no corner shop.

Cul-de-sac street design created neighbourhoods that looked peaceful on paper but made it impossible to walk anywhere efficiently.

These policies created car dependency by design. They made driving the only realistic option for most trips, then wondered why traffic kept getting worse. Fortunately, most places are now reversing these mistakes.

Transformation happens when you start thinking about transport and land use together through the lens of accessibility. Instead of asking "how fast can we move cars?" or "how much can we build here?", ask "what can people easily reach from this location.

This is the thinking behind the "15-minute city" concept: the idea that most daily needs should be accessible within a short walk, bike ride, or transit trip. The exact timeframe might vary (some places use 20 or 30 minutes), but the principle remains the same: proximity reduces car dependency.

Review your land use and transport plans and ask yourself: Does this make it easier or harder for people to reach the places they need to go without a car? That simple question can transform how your community develops.

Lesson 3 - Create Places People Want to Be

Picture your typical struggling high street: four lanes of traffic, cars parked right up to shop fronts, pedestrians squeezed onto narrow footpaths between rushing traffic and shop doorways. The noise makes conversation difficult, the fumes make lingering unpleasant, and the constant threat of vehicles makes the space feel unsafe. No wonder people choose to shop elsewhere. The problem is that these places are 'stroads'.

A stroad is a street trying to be a road, or a road trying to be a street. And like most things trying to be two different things at once, it fails at both.

Here's the difference: a street is a destination, a place where people want to spend time. Think of the best main street you know, probably somewhere with wide footpaths, outdoor dining, interesting shop fronts, and a pace that invites browsing rather than rushing. A road, on the other hand, is purely functional; it's designed to move traffic efficiently from point A to point B.

Stroads attempt both functions and achieve neither. They're too congested and slow to work well as roads, but too noisy, polluted, and dangerous to work as pleasant streets. The result is a hostile environment that people avoid unless they absolutely have to be there.

The cruel irony is that the businesses along these stroads often resist changes that would help them most. They've been told for so long that car access equals customers that they can't imagine another way. But the evidence consistently shows the opposite: when stroads are transformed into proper streets, foot traffic increases, dwell time extends, and businesses thrive.

The transformation isn't always easy politically. Drivers worry about delays, and businesses fear losing customers. But communities that have made this shift rarely look back.

Lesson 4 - Stop trying to build your way out of congestion

"By building more and wider highways, cities are not building their way out of congestion. They are building how many lanes of congestion they will have."

Janette Sadik-Khan, Street Fight

For decades, the solution to traffic jams seemed obvious: build more road capacity. It's intuitive, it feels productive, and it almost never works. It often makes congestion worse.

This counterintuitive reality has a name: induced demand. When you make driving easier or faster on a particular route, more people choose to use that route until it becomes just as congested as before, except now you've got more lanes of traffic crawling along at the same painful pace.

Places around the world have learned this lesson the hard way. So what's the alternative? Instead of increasing the supply of road space, focus on reducing the demand for car travel.

This means making it easier for people to choose alternatives:

1. Reduce trip distances.
2. Fix your parking policy.
3. Make walking and cycling safe and convenient
4. Support car sharing and carpooling.
5. Advocate for better public transport.

When fewer people drive, roads become less congested for those who genuinely need to use them. When more people walk and cycle, streets become more vibrant and safe. When public transport carries more passengers, it becomes more frequent and reliable.

This doesn't mean never building new roads; sometimes they're genuinely necessary. But before you reach for the road-building solution, ask yourself: Are we trying to accommodate more car trips, or are we trying to give people better ways to get around?

Lesson 5 - Rethink Parking

Nothing reveals the true cost of car dependency quite like parking. Every car space represents valuable urban land. Yet in most places, we give this space away for free.

Free parking isn't actually free. Someone always pays, either through taxes, higher shop prices, or opportunity costs from land that could be generating revenue instead of storing empty vehicles.

When parking is priced appropriately, spaces turn over more frequently, creating more opportunities for customers to visit, and businesses see increased foot traffic and sales.

The benefits of parking reform extend far beyond business revenue:

Financial sustainability - Parking charges generate revenue that can fund better footpaths, cycling infrastructure and public transport improvements.

Better land use – valuable urban land can be used for housing, parks, or business expansion instead of car storage.

Transport choice and reduced congestion – when parking isn't free and abundant, people choose other transport options.

The key is demonstrating where the parking revenue goes. Communities that see their parking fees invested in better streetscapes, improved transport options, or enhanced local services are much more likely to support the policy.

Lesson 6 - Slow down traffic to improve communities

The difference between a street where children play and one where they don’t often comes down to one simple factor: speed.

Communities across the world are discovering the benefits of slowing traffic down. When streets operate at 20 mph (30 km/h), people start walking and cycling more and local businesses see increased foot traffic.

School streets – roads that restrict vehicle access during drop-off and pick-up times – are becoming increasingly popular with parents who see the safety benefits.

Community support for these changes often grows stronger over time. Initial concerns about travel delays typically fade as residents discover that slower speeds rarely add significant time to local trips, while the quality of life improvements are immediate and lasting.

Lesson 7 - Invest in walking and cycling infrastructure

When communities invest in high-quality walking and cycling infrastructure, usage often increases dramatically.

Real cycling infrastructure means protected bike lanes that separate cyclists from traffic and connections that take people where they want to go. Real walking infrastructure means footpaths wide enough for wheelchairs and prams, safe crossing points that don't require a sprint across multiple lanes of traffic, and routes that are direct and well-lit.

Electric bikes have made cycling more accessible. What was once a 5-kilometre cycling limit for many people has become much longer. This dramatically expands the potential for cycling to replace car trips.

But infrastructure must be built as a network, not as isolated pieces. A beautiful bike path that dead-ends at a busy road serves no one. People need to be able to get from their front door to their destination without encountering gaps in the infrastructure.

Community engagement is crucial, but don't expect universal enthusiasm at the outset. Many people can't envision how infrastructure will change their behaviour until they experience it.

Remember, every person walking or cycling is one less car on the road, one less parking space needed, and one more person contributing to vibrant, healthy community life. The infrastructure investment pays dividends that extend far beyond transport.

Lesson 8 - Reduce Car Dependency with Sharing

Most cars spend 95% of their lives parked, occupying valuable space while their value depreciates. It's one of the most inefficient uses of resources in modern society.

Car sharing offers a smarter alternative. Instead of everyone owning a car they rarely use, people can access vehicles when they need them. Studies consistently show that each shared car replaces between 5 and 15 private vehicles.

Car sharing works particularly well for people who need a car occasionally but don't want the ongoing costs of ownership.

Local councils can accelerate the adoption of car sharing in several ways. The most direct approach is to provide dedicated car share parking spaces in convenient locations.

Carpooling – sharing rides rather than cars – offers different but complementary benefits. Most car trips carry just one person, which is tremendously inefficient. If that number could increase to 2 people per trip, traffic volumes would drop dramatically without requiring any new infrastructure.

The effectiveness of car sharing and car pooling depends heavily on density and trip patterns. Where conditions are right, the impacts can be substantial.

Councils can support carpooling by creating pick-up zones that make coordination easier and promoting the service to their communities.

Lesson 9 - Your team needs different skills for different transport modes

The best transport strategy in the world won't help if your team can't implement it effectively. Building roads and building bike paths might sound similar, but they require fundamentally different approaches.

When resurfacing a road, the main stakeholder concern is usually when the work will start and finish. When installing a protected bike lane, you must address concerns about parking loss, business access, emergency vehicle routes, property values, and the appropriateness of cycling infrastructure. Building stakeholder support for a bike path requires different expertise than coordinating roadworks.

Successful councils often establish dedicated active transport teams with skills that traditional road crews may not possess, including community engagement specialists who can facilitate consultation processes, design professionals who understand how infrastructure choices impact user experience, and project managers who can navigate complex political environments.

Don't underestimate the cultural shift required, either. Teams accustomed to prioritising vehicle flow may need time to adjust to approaches that prioritise pedestrian comfort or cyclist safety.

Lesson 10 - Advocate Strategically for Investment

Local councils rarely control all the transport levers that matter to their communities. You might manage local roads and footpaths, but someone else runs the buses, builds the major highways, and decides where new train stations go. This means your ability to advocate effectively for your community can be just as important as anything you directly control.

Effective transport advocacy requires a strategic approach. For transport projects, the first rule is ruthless prioritisation. Governments receive lots of funding requests. If your submission includes everything you might possibly want, nothing stands out as truly essential. Pick your battles. Focus on the one or two investments that would make the biggest difference to your community and make a compelling case for them.

The second rule is alignment. Align your agenda with the government's agenda. If they are focusing on improving bus services, look for opportunities to improve bus services in your area.

The third rule is preparation. Too much advocacy is badly drawn lines on maps. Gather the data, model the costs, identify the benefits, and anticipate the objections. When I was a Councillor, we successfully lobbied for the extension to the Northern Line. This was partly because we had done our homework.

Conclusion

Local governments have the potential to deliver significant improvements in their communities when it comes to transport.

The most important shift is moving away from the old mindset of simply accommodating more cars. Instead, focus on creating places where people want to spend time, where children can walk or cycle safely to school, where local businesses thrive, and where residents have genuine choices about how they get around.

Every community is different. A rural council's approach will differ from an inner-city one, and that's perfectly fine. What matters is applying these principles thoughtfully to your local context. Whether you're tackling a problematic stroad, implementing your first car share scheme, or lobbying for better public transport connections, you're contributing to a better future for your community.
​

Subscribe to the Transport Leader Blog and Newsletter