Neighbourhood accessibility planning

Information

• What neighbourhood accessibility planning is all about
• Starting a neighbourhood accessibility project in your community

What neighbourhood accessibility planning is all about

Neighbourhood accessibility planning is an initiative designed to help councils improve walking and cycling access and safety.

The process involves consulting with the community to find out what the main issues are for pedestrians and cyclists. The council, in partnership with the community and community groups, then specifies a list of actions that need to be undertaken.

These actions can include engineering, education, encouragement, enforcement, environmental and policy initiatives.

Examples include:

• installing drop kerbs for disabled users
• installing pedestrian crossings
• providing training for cyclists
• putting education and enforcement campaigns in place, to reduce driving speeds
• improving lighting
• organising walking school buses (PDF, 685 KB)
• beautification, to make areas more pleasant to walk around.

The neighbourhood accessibility planning process is also ideal for planning:

• improved access to public transport
• improved facilities around schools and suburban town centres
• lowered speed zones or traffic calming
• other significant infrastructure additions for pedestrians and cyclists.

The neighbourhood accessibility planning programme (then called Safer Routes) started in early 2004 in Nelson, Papatoetoe, Rotorua and South Dunedin. There are now projects in numerous areas throughout New Zealand.

Starting a neighbourhood accessibility planning project in your community

Neighbourhood accessibility planning projects are typically implemented in urban areas where pedestrians and cyclists are at high risk of injury or in areas with 'strategic significance' (eg in areas where it is beneficial to improve linkages to passenger transport).

Getting funding

The NZTA provides funding assistance for most of the activities in a neighbourhood accessibility plan through the National Land Transport Programme (NLTP).

Activities are funded at different assistance rates depending on the activity – activities are not 100 percent funded. Other funding agencies may also provide funding assistance, for specific project activities.

The community programme work category provides funding for the professional services needed to manage and undertake the project at all phases, this includes:

• employing a neighbourhood accessibility planning coordinator or contractor
• associated costs for data and information collection
• implementing education, promotional, advertising based initiatives and community led activities evaluation.

Funding for environmental and infrastructure actions can be obtained through several work categories in the NLTP.

Three of the most common work categories that are used are:

• minor improvement project work category
• pedestrian and cycling facilities work categories
• demand management work category.

Reporting & monitoring

Neighbourhood accessibility planning project coordinators should submit:

• four electronic quarterly reports for Q1 (October), Q2 (Jan), Q3 (April) and Q4 (July)
  • Download the quarterly report template (Word, 52 KB)
• an annual activity report via LTP online
• an end of project Monitoring and Evaluation Report at the completion of your project (both electronic and hard copy).

Send quarterly reports and end of project evaluation report to your local NZTA office contact person.

Guideline documents

The NZTA provides a range of documentation to assist with starting and carrying out projects:

• Neighbourhood accessibility plans: Operational policy (PDF, 430 KB)
• Information for local authorities starting projects (PDF, 940 KB)
• Guidelines for coordinators (PDF, 1.75 MB)
• Resources to support the guidelines for coordinators
• Case study research 2008 (PDF, 1.54 MB)
• Terms of reference template: neighbourhood accessibility plan - investigation stage, also available in Word (88 KB).
• Terms of reference template: neighbourhood accessibility planning - prioritisation study, also available in Word (88 KB)
• Neighbourhood accessibility plan summary posters
  • Nelson (PDF, 180 KB)
  • Papatoetoe (PDF, 370 KB)
  • South Dunedin (PDF, 372 KB)

Other complementary guideline documents include:

• Share the road – guidance and examples for running campaigns
• School travel plan coordinator's guidelines
• Workplace travel plan coordinator's guidelines
• Cycle network and route planning guide
• Pedestrian planning design guide

Territorial authorities wanting to know more should contact your local NZTA office contact person or email the NZTA Neighbourhood Accessibility Planning Coordinator at neighbourhood.accessibility@nzta.govt.nz.

Page updated: 26 February 2009