Exploring Planning Tribunal Decisions on Transportation Demand Management Plans

Travel plans, also known as Transportation Demand Management (TDM) plans, can be required through the land use planning and approvals process for new and expanded buildings. They aim to manage car use and encourage the use of more sustainable transport modes though delivering a set of tailored transport measures for the development. Where decisions on development applications are appealed and depending on jurisdictional arrangements, a planning tribunal is typically involved in reviewing the decision, including the requirement for a travel plan where applicable. The aim of this research was to explore planning tribunal decisions on requiring travel plans for new developments. Using a case study of Victoria, Australia, an analysis of 174 planning tribunal reports from 2005-16 showed that travel plan requirements were accepted in 88% of cases. However, hearings dominated by junior planning tribunal members were associated with lower acceptance rates compared to those involving more senior members. Support for travel plans among planning tribunal members varied, with concerns raised over enforcement, relevance, reasonableness and implementation. Recommendations for improving travel planning practice include the development of more clearly worded travel plan conditions, provision of training programs and guidelines, and the introduction of supportive and consistent planning policy. Future research should explore the reasons for planning tribunal decisions in greater depth and expand the methodology to other jurisdictions.

• Supplemental Notes:
  • This paper was sponsored by TRB committee ABE50 Standing Committee on Transportation Demand Management.
• Authors:
  • De Gruyter, Chris
  • Rose, Geoffrey
  • Wilson, Kailey
  • Dukanovic, Zoran
  • Truong, Long T
• Conference:
  • Transportation Research Board 97th Annual Meeting
  • Location: Washington DC, United States
  • Date: 2018-1-7 to 2018-1-11
• Date: 2018

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Features: References; Tables;
• Pagination: 5p

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Case studies; Decision making; Land use planning; Travel demand management
• Uncontrolled Terms: Approval process
• Geographic Terms: Victoria (Australia)
• Subject Areas: Planning and Forecasting; Policy; Transportation (General);

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01659603
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: 18-00047
• Files: TRIS, TRB, ATRI
• Created Date: Feb 8 2018 9:41AM