Active travel is not in one document but many. This makes it confusing to know where to find something. The ACT Government has a system and understanding it helps locate the key documents.
Here you will find an overview of the ACT active travel documents and, in the last section, the documents to download.
Key documents – Standards and guideline documents which should be used in the planning and design of active travel facilities. These are listed in Sections 2.2.3 to 2.2.7.
Active Travel Facilities Design – Municipal Infrastructure Standards 05 (MIS05) (ACT Government, April 2019)
The short answer
When considering the design standards for active travel infrastructure the ACT and Austroads Standards work hand in hand, the first piggybacks off the latter. The ACT Standards are only differs from the Austroads Standards where that the ACT Government have a specific preference or do things differently. The Austroads Standards provide more than one option in any situation as states often have different ways of approaching things.
The ACT active travel standards are found in this document:
- Active Travel Facilities Design – Municipal Infrastructure Standards 05 (2019) or simply MIS05.
The Austroads document describes the national standard for pedestrian and bike infrastructure:
- Austroads Guide to Road Design Part 6A: Paths for Walking and Cycling (2021) or simply AGRD06A.
A discussion of these two documents is found here.
The long answer
There is a hierarchy of documents from high level to most specific. There are so many of these documents and the titles are so long that they are easily confused.
The Territory Plan
Active Travel has been incorporated in the Territory Plan.
Variation of the Territory Plan No 348: Incorporating Active Living Principles into the Territory Plan (27 October 2017)
This document can be downloaded from the ACT Government website.
Building an Integrated Transport Network: Active Travel
(alias Active Travel Framework)
In 2015 the ACT Government released a strategy for active travel. The document is called Building an Integrated Transport Network: Active Travel but also often referred to in short as the Active Travel Framework.
The problem with strategy documents such as Building an Integrated Transport Network: Active Travel is that they tell you the “why” and “what” but not the “how”.
A discussion of the document is found here.
Active Travel Infrastructure Interim Planning Guideline
(abbr. PATACT)
An introduction to Planning for Active Travel in the ACT: Active Travel Infrastructure Interim Planning Guideline (ACT Government, January 2019). Because the title is so long it is often simply referred to it as PATACT.
The PATACT does a good job of introducing the policy context and in particular important active travel documents and processes.
The advantage of the PATACT is that it is an excellent introduction to the way the ACT Government wishes to introduce active travel into the ACT.
A discussion of this document is found here.
The Active Travel Standards
User groups – Pedestrians, cyclists and equestrians are made up of different groups of users that have different values and needs. Pedestrian user groups include walkers, joggers, people pushing prams or strollers and those using wheelchairs, both motorised or non-motorised. Cyclist user groups include primary and secondary school children, family groups / recreational cyclists, commuters, neighbourhood / utility cyclists, and touring and training cyclists (refer AGTM04 Table 4.12).
Active Travel Facilities Design – Municipal Infrastructure Standards 05 (MIS05) (ACT Government, April 2019)
The Active Travel Standards are extensive (not surprisingly), so on canberra.bike, we narrow down the discussion to cycle highways ie the standards relevant to trunk cycleways. There are three parts:
- The Standard
- The Active Travel Route Alignments (ATRA)
- The Standard Drawings
THE STANDARD
Active Travel Facilities Design – Municipal Infrastructure Standards 05 (MIS05)
Probably the best introduction is found here.
The taxonomy of Active Travel is explained in the article Cycle highways: Introduction to Active Travel and introduces Active Travel. Extracts related specifically to cycle highways from two key documents are found in the following two articles.
- Extracts- Active Travel Facilities Design MIS05
- Extracts- Planning for Active Travel in the ACT (PATACT)
THE ATRA
Active Travel Route Alignments (ATRA) – The spatial alignment datasets of the five Active Travel Route types.
Active Travel Facilities Design – Municipal Infrastructure Standards 05 (MIS05) (ACT Government, April 2019)
The Active Travel Route Alignments are found in the Active Travel Infrastructure Practitioner Tool.
The Active Travel Infrastructure Practitioner Tool is a website that displays ACT Government planning data from ACTmapi. The Tool is simpler than ACTmapi and provides a selection of data for Canberra’s current and future transport needs with a focus on active travel.
A discussion of this document is found here.
STANDARD DRAWINGS
The ACT Active Travel Standard Drawings (ACTSD) can be downloaded from the Active Travel Infrastructure Practitioner Tool.
The Documents
The documents discussed above will be added here for download.
canberra.bike 