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Department of Transport and Main Roads

Stage 3 – Testing the plan

In this stage you engage with stakeholders and get their feedback on the draft plan. Incorporating local knowledge and experiences from a diverse range of people is crucial for preparing a quality plan.

Use multiple techniques to achieve this:

  • consider accessibility needs, privacy and record keeping factors to determine the right digital and in-person tools
  • engage with council's/TMR Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander or First Nations liaison officer and/or community development officers and allow time to connect and engage with First Nations communities and representatives
  • understand other cultural backgrounds and customs in the catchment (for example, tailor workshops and outputs if there are large populations with first languages other than English)
  • engage with people with a range of lived experiences such as people with disability (via groups such as Queenslanders with Disability Network)
  • capture demographic nuances such as people who walk as a primary mode of transport (without access to cars).

Timing of your engagement will influence who can attend. Think about:

  • duration of the workshop, survey, audit or selected engagement
  • optimum time to attract your targeted stakeholders. For example, early morning is typically when those requiring daily care services are busy, there may be fewer options for getting to in-person locations by public transport out of peak hours, and those with 9am-5pm jobs may not be able to attend during the working day.
  • peak temperatures during the middle of the day.

Consider holding multiple opportunities with different times of day/week to maximise opportunity for stakeholder or community attendance.

Engagement approaches

Select your engagement approaches based on a stakeholder or community-wide approach to achieve the walking network plan project objectives. Use your vision to guide who you most need to include. Communicate the vision as part of the engagement. To achieve the most value out of testing the walking network plan, combine your approach to have both in-person and online engagement.

Tailor engagement activities to match audience such as including draft network maps as an aid for focussing discussions. Be aware that there will be community or stakeholder preparation and education as part of the engagement activities on the importance of walking. For more guidance, use the Active Transport Investment Program Community Engagement Guide. You should:

  • have a clear plan for your engagement
  • use facilitators with engagement skills. Adopt a Co Design approach (refer to TMR's Public Transport Conveyance Manual for further co-design guidance)
  • document changes to the plan in the draft project report
  • discuss possible solutions and works to make the plan a reality. Only do this after getting input into the walking network routes as it's tempting for stakeholders to jump to specifics such as missing kerb ramps or poor maintenance.

Digital engagement

For virtual or hybrid workshops use online engagement resources so participants can provide direct feedback on the draft plan and provide suggestions for implementation actions.

If you're developing digital engagement, provide a supporting written brief to inform the process and context to those who are not able to attend in-person engagement activities. The brief may have a dual use later as part of the project endorsement.

Use the digital feedback at face-to-face events such as stakeholder workshops and pop-up engagement, and in the project report.

Use digital feedback maps as a useful layer in Stage 4 when identifying overlapping opportunities such as walking routes and the Principal Cycling Network Plan.

You can integrate digital surveys with digital mapping technology to capture stakeholder aspirations and user experiences of walking in the project area. Online surveys allow greater reach for expanding to a community-based engagement approach with a lower time commitment.

In-person engagement

This might include:

  • targeted interviews and/or cold calls with users of large attractors such as childcare, health care, aged care
  • intercept surveys that capture users' walking experience and preferences (contact walking@tmr.qld.gov.au for a sample survey)
  • pop-up sessions that require a limited time commitment for participants (for example, consider providing a pop-up table at supermarkets or locations with foot traffic to hear from bystanders)
  • facilitated walking audit.

Alternative in-person engagement may work well in smaller towns, remote areas or for gathering information from particular user groups.

Workshop

Use the following resources to help prepare and run the stakeholder or community workshop. Choose a venue close to a primary destination so you can include an auditing activity. We have provided the following workshop resources:

You will also need:

  • Supporting maps to help participants identify walking opportunities, constraints and barriers – these might include school catchments, crash history, topography, speed limits and the Principal Cycle Network.
  • Large printouts of the draft walking network plan so participants can provide feedback on the plan directly. These will be a valuable resource when finalising the plan.

To help facilitate participant discussion on potential works/actions, identify priority routes/areas with the group before considering the whole precinct area.


Walking audit

A walking audit:

  • helps stakeholders 'get into the shoes' of someone who walks
  • shapes stakeholders' network perceptions
  • informs stakeholders as to how and why the draft walking network plan is amended.

Select audit routes to suit a range of abilities. If you're aware accessibility is poor in the precinct, consider gathering inclusive mapping data of the area to help focus where improvements are needed most.

Consider timing of audit and weather. Geography may impact timing of the workshop and audit, for example late evening worked well in the northern peninsula area of North Queensland where daytime temperatures are consistently between 25-35 degrees Celsius.

Other factors will influence your audit approach:

  • The audit can be scaled from a workshop activity of a few key locations up to a larger audit. After the audit, record the notes, images, discussion themes and suggestions for improving the walking environment to use in the action program in Stage 4.
  • When you are working in regional areas or undertaking a corridor or precinct project you should hold a walking audit in each town/or primary destination for different community representatives.
  • The audit may need to be a bigger task with auditing/ground truthing of the existing network as a highly valuable task for the project.
  • Audits ensure local knowledge is captured but be considerate of the time commitment.
  • Discuss the budget limitations for auditing the walking network study extent and the need to prioritise areas or routes for audits and action programs to manage expectations. Talk about the approach with decision-makers before procurement so there is approved time and budget.

Here are some tips for running a productive audit:

  • Use this runsheet to organise your audit at the beginning of the in-person workshop, or as a separate infield engagement activity.
  • Guarantee appropriate pre-walk checks and relevant workplace health and safety procedures. Ensure risk assessment has been evaluated prior to departing.
  • Prepare map printouts of the walking audit routes for participants' reference.
  • Designate a walk facilitator to lead the walking audit group and discussion on issues and opportunities.
  • Use a field log sheet during the audit. Encourage feedback from all participants by, for example, breaking into multiple smaller groups.
  • Encourage attendees to make notes, take photos and participate in discussion.

After the audit, discuss if the findings match the walking network plan vision. Use the Walkable Neighbourhood Design Options presentation and TMR's Pedestrian and Walking Guidance and Resources to assist discussions. Review Stage 4 prior to the workshop to determine engagement focus areas for area-wide and route-specific actions.

Case study: Engaging with First Nations representatives

As part of its engagement on three walking network plans, Sunshine Coast Regional Council connected with First Nations representatives to understand and incorporate the cultural history and diversity of the plan precincts.

A local elder from the Kabi Kabi people attended the Maroochydore and Nambour stakeholder workshops. This included a Welcome to Country where insightful context and stories were shared with the stakeholder group. During the workshop, the local elder also shared valuable input into the traditional walking routes and their perspective on the current and future walking needs.

The final plans show First Nations' traditional walking routes and recommend a cultural review of the catchment areas to identify key destinations and protection areas during the future delivery of the plans.

This approach to look for opportunities to engage with the region's First Nations people aligned with the Sunshine Coast Regional Council's Reconciliation Action Plan and has enriched the walking network plans in these areas.


Case study: planning walking networks for everyone

TMR and some councils have commissioned people using wheelchairs equipped with technology to audit walking networks and identify barriers and defects.

You can find out more by watching the video below and by reading our action summary.


 

I'm Nat Verdon and I'm the Managing Director of Briometrix and we've been working for the last seven years in understanding the needs of people with limited mobility and getting out and about in our community.

So Briometrix concentrates on the data capture and the analysis of the footpath network and its relationship to the transport network.

We actually work with what we call our wheelchair pilots. These are people who use wheelchairs. We connect the technology that we have created to those wheelchairs and go ahead and collect that data and then analyse that data and that data is in visualised, and shared with TMR [Department of Transport and Main Roads], in the forms of maps and in the forms of dashboards.

The types of navigational barriers and challenges that we have learnt from working with people with limited mobility have been three major challenges: and that's the effort, the connectivity and the risk that's presented with the network. So when we talk about the effort, if you think of the slope, the surface type and the surface condition, how difficult it is to move around the network.

When we look at connectivity, it's about the kerbs and the crossings and then we look at that, the risk of it, that's when we're looking at things such as trip hazards and obstacles. Briometrix has worked with TMR and in the areas of Brisbane, in Townsville, in Sunshine Coast and in Broadbeach and in also in Rockhampton.

When we worked with TMR and the way we approached the footpath network and how we want mobility maps and walkability to happen, you'll find if you work with people who have a disability and you look at their certain needs that they have and you work with those needs, you'll find that by being able to explore and resolve those issues, you actually find it's applicable to the whole population.

What we're looking at is the footpath network. Now as far as its walkability, it's movement. So they're the two perspectives that they've seen, they've learned now what stops the journey, but what stops a journey and what actually where people can lose confidence. And if we can address those risks, then we can actually get walkability, we can get the new healthy habits happening.

So there are the two perspectives that we like from our partners that they've come back and said I haven't seen those two things and now that I have seen them, it's something that you can't unsee. We see TMR using the work that we've done to help everyone making walking a choice for everyday.

By using this data and understanding where the gaps are, where the risks are, we can get people out and about and encouraging not only themselves but encouraging others. And we know that starts healthy habits with a focus for everybody. We can get the most out of the footpath network.


Case study: Footpath audits

TMR worked collaboratively with Mareeba Shire Council to develop the Mareeba Walking Network Plan. During the in-person workshop, participants audited only a small section of the catchment area.

The council recognised the opportunity to undertake an expanded audit of all primary routes and some key secondary routes within the catchment to include:

  • the existing footpath configurations (for example, widths, kerb ramp allowances)
  • pavement types (such as pavers or concrete).

The expanded audit meant the action program was more robust as it addressed concerns beyond the prioritised areas discussed or audited in the workshop.

The council also published the project on its website.

In another example, Maranoa Regional Council developed a criteria to achieve the project vision for walking and assess asset conditions from a maintenance and user experience perspective.

Maranoa Regional Council assessed all routes within the WNP walkable catchment against the criteria via on-the-ground auditing.

The dynamic auditing meant the works program captured detailed footpath information as well as having the benefit of modernising GIS records for council.

The works program was expanded to include the existing network and this allowed council to manage the ongoing maintenance and upgrades of the existing network versus the new work.

Council will review the maps regularly against the works program and update the GIS data with ongoing revision.

Finalise walking network plan

  • Update the plan to include stakeholder and community recommendations. Changes are likely to include:
    • amendments to secondary destination locations
    • adding cross-catchment routes (precinct)
    • rationalising, realigning and, if necessary, removing secondary routes to better reflect how the community wants to use the walking network.
  • Liaise closely with key stakeholders when finalising the walking network plan to encourage ownership and buy-in ahead of adopting a finalised plan.
  • Organise a meeting to finalise the plan with council support and capture any final feedback or learnings. Provide flexibility in the program to allow for additional council review time as needed.
  • Capture changes in the map and description in your project report.
Last updated 22 April 2024