Council strategies
Councils can develop 'sub-regional' land transport strategies to provide greater detail or a tighter focus than is provided in a regional land transport strategy. These strategies provide the basis for the detailed implementation programme of activities, which in turn, councils include in their Long Term Council Community Plan (LTCCP) .
Activity management plans
Most councils develop activity management plans every three years. These plans set out one-off and ongoing transport activities that deliver land transport services and transport infrastructure to support community needs. The aim is to do this at the most affordable cost in the short and long term.
Activity management plans cover all aspects of land transport in a council's network including:
- roads
- cycleways
- street lighting
- traffic signs and signals
- retaining walls, tunnels and bridges
- road drainage
- street lighting equipment.
The plans reflect the costs of:
- operating land transport infrastructure, eg street cleaning, power for street lighting, and the staff time spent operating traffic signals
- maintaining and renewing existing infrastructure, eg repairing potholes, repainting faded road marking, re-surfacing roads or footpaths
- improving land transport infrastructure, eg by widening a road, creating a new cycleway.
Some of the things councils consider when developing these plans include:
- how extensive and good the transport services and infrastructure need to be, taking into account what the community wants and is prepared to pay for
- likely future traffic volumes and use of transport services
- the current quality of services and the condition of land transport infrastructure
- possible impacts on asset condition or service quality, considering risks such as natural hazards, like storms or floods, and how rapid and complete any response to rectify damage should be
- the funding available from all sources - rates, contributions from developers (whose developments increase the demand on transport services and infrastructure), and from the National Land Transport Fund.
A council's asset management plans should provide a robust base for the transport projects they include in their LTCCPs.
Did you know?
Now a worldwide practice, the process of asset management planning began in New Zealand. Engineers in New Zealand co-operatively developed the processes. These are now standardised and shown in the International Infrastructure Management Manual published by the National Asset Management Group (NAMs group).
Regional Public Transport Plans (RPTP)
Regional councils develop regional public transport plans to describe how they plan to deliver and improve public transport services in their region.
The plans include:
- a description of bus, rail and ferry passenger services a council plans to provide, including proposals to improve and extend services.
- any financial assistance the council will provide to taxi and shuttle services, such as Total Mobility schemes for the disabled
- any policies applying to public transport services, eg fares and quality standards
- a description of how the services will support the transport disadvantaged - people who are disabled or without access to a private motor vehicle
- forecasts of future patronage
- any rules commercial public transport services (those not contracted by councils) must follow.
These plans primarily cover services for the general public. Normally excluded are:
- general taxi and shuttle services
- Ministry of Education services
- tourism services
- public transport infrastructure (this is found in council asset management plans).
The Public Transport Management Act (2008) (external link) sets out the rules that regional councils must follow when developing an RPTP including for public consultation. Councils must also take into account our guidelines.
Long term council community plans (LTCCPs)
These plans set out a council's priorities - including land transport - for the coming decade. Find out more about LTCCPs.
