#66 Local Street Management (pt 3) - LATM Study scope and objectives

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The third entry in the current series on Local Area Traffic Management (LATM), as informed by the AGTM Part 8: Local Street Management [1], outlines Stage 2 of the LATM process, which is to define the study scope and objectives. The key tasks for Stage 2 are identified in the Guide as including:

Define and collect required data
Identify problems
Identify potential solutions
Define and confirm objectives

The specific objectives should reflect the issues and problems that are identified in the LATM process as needing to be addressed. As input to the objectives usually comes from multiple parties, including government, community and other stakeholders, ‘specific objectives may suggest contradictory actions’, as well as potentially different pathways to the same goal/s. As put by Austroads (2020, p.31):

From the technical point of view, objectives are the measurable targets that are set to reach the desired outcomes; they are action statements (i.e. they start with a verb). They provide the principal yardsticks against which the outcomes or performance of the LATM scheme can be assessed.

Data collection

Proper definition and quantification of relevant issues and problems requires access to appropriate data. While much information can often be sourced from existing databases, new data are typically also needed. Due to the costs of data collection, practitioners should be sure to only collect and analyse data which are relevant to the study. Austroads (2020) tabulates the types of data typically collected, and their purpose, including Operational and design data, Environmental data, and Social data. A condensed version of the table summarises these data points.

Table 1: Typical data used for LATM study (adapted from Austroads, 2020)

Operational & design data	Traffic volumes (peak hour; 18 hr or 24 hr)
	Traffic composition (vehicle types)
	Crashes (from records or local knowledge)
	Predictive risk (e.g., through ANRAM and AusRAP/KiwiRAP)
	Road & infrastructure inventory: widths, sight distance, access points, etc.
	Road inventory (possibly existing GIS-based asset management system)
	Origin/destination surveys
	Traffic speeds
	Travel times and delays
	Level of service
	Street activity survey
	Bus routes (existing and potential)
	Pedestrian volumes, desire lines and activity
	Cyclist volumes, desire lines and parking
	Parking (resident and non-local)
Environmental data	Noise measurements and/or modelling
	Location and needs of environmentally sensitive land uses
	Streetscape assessment: trees, materials, other assets; visual attributes
Social data	Age distribution and household structure
	Language and ethnicity
	Proportion rental/residential mobility
	Geographical groupings; use and access to facilities, etc.

Identifying problems and potential improvements

Identification of problems and issues can occur through both objective and subjective inputs, and may arise through:

Assessment of conditions with reference to standards, thresholds, comparisons
Council-driven improvement programs
New or altered development and land use activities
Community/stakeholder input and feedback

Ultimately, a final statement of objectives will be informed by known issues that were the impetus for initiating an LATM process, as well as other concerns that may have emerged through the Stage 2 data collection and problem identification process.

[1] Austroads (2020). Guide to Traffic Management Part 8: Local Street Management. Sydney, Austroads. https://austroads.gov.au/publications/traffic-management/agtm08