Transport Statement

Similar to a Transport Assessment a Transport Statement should set out the transport issues relating to a proposed development site (existing conditions) and details of the development proposals (proposed development).

Existing Conditions

The developer should provide a full description of:

• Existing site information – describing the current physical infrastructure and characteristics of the site and its surroundings; and
• Baseline transport data – background transport data and current transport infrastructure details.

This information should be accurately established to understand the context of the development proposal. The description should include as a minimum:

Existing site information:

• A site location plan that shows the proposed development site in relation to the surrounding area and transport system;
• The permitted and existing use of the site;
• The existing land uses in the vicinity of the site, including development plan allocations, or potential future use in the case of undeveloped sites;
• Existing site access arrangements including access constraints, where appropriate;
• Whether the location of the site is within or near a designated Air Quality Management Area (AQMA); and
• Any abnormal load uses of the current site.

Baseline transport data:

• A qualitative description of the travel characteristics of the existing site, including pedestrian and cyclist movements and facilities, where applicable;
• Existing public transport provision, including provision/frequency of services, location of bus stops/train stations, park-and-ride facilities;
• A description and functional classification of the highway network in the vicinity of the site; and
• An analysis of the recorded personal injury accident records on the public highway in the vicinity of the site access.

Proposed Development

The developer should provide a full description within the Transport Statement including, as a minimum:

• Plans and drawings showing the proposed site layout, particularly the proposed pedestrian and vehicular access points into the site;
• The proposed land use;
• The scale of development, such as numbers of residential units and/or gross floor area (GFA), subdivided by land use where appropriate;
• The main features (design layout and access points) of the development;
• The person-trip generation of the proposed development and distribution of trips across mode;
• A qualitative and quantitative description (based on recent site observations) of the travel characteristics of the proposed development, including pedestrian and cyclist facilities/movements, in the vicinity of the site;
• Proposed improvements to site accessibility via sustainable modes of travel, such as provision/enhancement of footpath and cycle path linkages, public transport improvements, and servicing arrangements where appropriate;
• A proposed parking strategy and internal vehicular circulation (including number of spaces, parking accumulation, parking layout in relation to other site elements, ratio of operational to non-operational spaces, method of car park operation, overspill parking considerations, disabled parking, motorcycle parking, cycle parking, taxi drop-off points);
• Residual vehicular trip impact;
• The transport impacts of site construction, including the requirements of abnormal loads in the construction, use and decommissioning the present development;
• The transport impacts of freight or service operations; and
• If the site of the proposed development has a current use or an extant planning permission with trip patterns/volumes, the net level of change that might arise out of the new proposals should be set out

The above requirements are not exhaustive and there may be a need for supplementary information that takes account of local conditions as well as other material considerations.

However, not all proposed developments that are considered to require a Transport Statement would necessarily need all of the above matters to be considered. Therefore, it is important that the scope of the Transport Statement is agreed at the pre-application discussion stage between the developer or their consultants and appropriate authorities.