Council has an Active Transport Strategy (finalised in January 2025) which provides the strategy, ranking methodology, and mapping to support the expansion of paths, pedestrian crossings and bicycle infrastructure across the city. The former Pedestrian Access & Mobility Plan (PAMP) and Bike Plan have been absorbed, updated, and integrated into the new strategy.
The purpose of the plan is to:
- demonstrate an integrated approach to 'active transport' planning across the city
- identify priorities for pedestrians and cyclists
- continuously improve the network of footpaths, shared user paths, pedestrian crossings and bicycle infrastructure.
- assist Council in prioritising works
- assist Council and the community to obtain grant funding for priority improvements
A new “Shoalhaven Active Transport Strategy” was developed in 2024 and finalised in January 2025.
While the city’s active transport maps and project ranking spreadsheets have always been kept as current as possible, the new Active Transport Strategy brings together, updates, and integrates the former Pedestrian Access Mobility Plan (PAMP) and Bike Plan (that were last updated more than 10 years ago) into one integrated strategy, and aims to help prioritise the delivery of new paths, pedestrian crossings and cycleway infrastructure across the city.
- The Shoalhaven Active Transport Strategy includes the ranking of more than 900 proposed projects
- Projects were ranked based the new “Active Transport” selection criteria
- The Documents present contemporary strategies that conform to current standards, guidelines and industry best practice, and in accordance with the NSW Governments new NSW Active Transport Strategy
The launch of the PAMP Interactive Mapping Tool in June 2021 continues to help Council work with the community to refine the network of existing and proposed infrastructure, and will continue to be improved, going forward.
Following Grant funding approval in December 2023, the new draft strategy was subsequently prepared, and Council resolved on 15 August 2024 to place the new draft strategy on public exhibition and seek community feedback.
The draft strategy was on exhibition from 26 August to 29 September 2024. A total of 97 survey responses and 5 emailed submissions were received (102 responses in total). In response we prepared an Exhibition Outcomes Report, which was made public on 22 November 2024 (and subsequently included as an Appendix to the final strategy report). From November 2024 – January 2025 we were busy making the final amendments to the strategy to address the community feedback we received, and the documents were then finalised in January 2025, pursuant to the Council’s 15 August 2024 resolution.
Staff will continue to evolve the maps and ranking spreadsheets as live operational documents and are planning on a refresh of the Active Transport Strategy documents in January 2026.
The former Pedestrian Access and Mobility Plan (PAMP) was originally adopted in 2002 (Nowra Bomaderry, Milton Ulladulla, and Bay and Basin areas) and 2005 (all other suburb and village areas to complete the strategy for the city).
The community were originally invited to nominate projects for consideration, and to also comment on criteria which would then allow all projects to be ranked city wide. Projects were then mapped and ranked against the adopted criteria, and the PAMP documents were placed on exhibition before adoption.
While the city’s maps and ranking spreadsheets have been continued to be kept current as live operational documents, the new Shoalhaven Active Transport Strategy updates and brings together the Pedestrian Access Mobility Plan (PAMP) and Bike Plan that were last updated more than 10 years ago.
Below, you can still access the former PAMP and former PAMP scoring criteria.
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Similar to the PAMP, Council also had a Bike Plan which was adopted in 2013. The Bike Plan mapping and projects are integrated with the PAMP and are now updated and integrated into the new Active Transport Strategy. Although the PAMP included existing and propose cycling infrastructure, cycling wasn't the sole focus of the PAMP which addresses all forms of active transport.
Accordingly, the Bike Plan was originally prepared to highlight the strategy for cyclists and cyclist safety specifically. The Bike Plan also had separate criteria to rank cycling initiatives (now replaced by the Active Transport scoring criteria which was based on the Bike Plan score criteria as the starting point, but was then expanded to ensure the new criteria effectively addresses all things involved with active transport).
You can still access the former Bike Plan and former Bike Plan scoring criteria below.
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Australia's largest ever crowd-sourcing bike safety project – BikeSpot 2023 – was launched by the Amy Gillett Foundation on Friday 20 October 2023 at Parliament House in Canberra – and we thought we’d add it here for you!
The BikeSpot 2023 website is part of the Safe Cycling program funded by the Australian Government. There was previously a 2020 iteration which was restricted to Victoria, but this one is now nationwide.
People can simply launch the interactive map and add their own spots, calling out locations that aren’t safe to cycle. Wherever you are in Australia, you can add your spot to the BikeSpot map.
A quote from the Amy Gillett Foundation:
“Research has shown that a key barrier to getting more people on bikes is how unsafe they feel when riding, particularly around cars.
Monash University has found more than three-quarters of people are interested in riding a bike, but only when separated from cars, such as on off-road paths or protected bike lanes.
The aim of the project is to develop insights into perceived safe and unsafe cycling locations and contribute to prioritising future cycling infrastructure improvements.
Data collected from the project will be de-identified and made publicly available.”
Here at Council we receive feedback from the community in a large number of ways, and we’ll also be keeping a close eye on BikeSpot 2023 to monitor the feedback people are leaving about the Shoalhaven.
We encourage people to add their spots in the Shoalhaven as this will be useful information for us as we continue to evolve the PAMP and Bike Plan.
For more information or to add spots to the map, go to the BikeSpot website:
BikeSpot 2023 | Make Your Mark | Let’s Make Cycling Safe
(Whilst the next iteration of the BikeSpot Project has yet to be announced, we have maintained the link to the 2023 BikeSpot project because it now contains the mapping and results of the 2023 survey, including local Shoalhaven submissions).
A further refinement of the PAMP and with a focus on an Implementation Plan, Council adopted its 'Round the Bay' Walks Implementation Plan in 2012.
The Round the Bay projects were integrated with the PAMP, and similar to the Bike Plan was prepared to refine the route and highlight the strategy for Round the Bay specifically. The Round the Bay projects also incorporate shared user paths to facilitate cycling access wherever practical and feasible to do so. Like PAMP and Bike Plan, the Round the Bay components have also been absorbed updated and integrated into the new Active Transport Strategy.
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Since June 2021 this interactive map has been available showing where existing and proposed paths, crossings, and bicycle facilities currently are (and proposed to be) located, making it easier for residents and visitors to visualise the plan. It has also been a great way for Council to engage with the community (the existing/proposed infrastructure mapping is now effectively available 24/7 for the community to review and provide feedback, and your feedback has, and continues to, help us refine the plan.)
In line with the new Active Transport Strategy, it is the intention to eventually provide a second interactive mapping tool “Bike Plan” to effectively map existing and proposed cycling infrastructure only (as opposed to the current tool which shows all active transport infrastructure). Both tools will then be supported and improved further over time.
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A new Shoalhaven Active Transport Strategy was developed in 2024 and finalised in January 2025.
The new Active Transport Strategy brings together and updates the former Pedestrian Access Mobility Plan (PAMP) and Bike Plan into one integrated strategy and aims to help prioritise the delivery of new paths, pedestrian crossings and cycleway infrastructure across the city.
In line with the adopted strategy, staff will continue to evolve the maps and ranking spreadsheets as live operational documents and are planning on a refresh of the Active Transport Strategy documents in January 2026.
The National Cycling Participation Survey (NCPS) is a standardised survey that has been repeated biennially since 2011. The NCPS provides data on cycling participation at a national level and allows for estimates of participation for each state and territory, and the capital cities and non-capital areas within each state and territory.
In 2020 Shoalhaven City Council had the opportunity to participate in the NCPS including an expanded sample size to capture a broad cross section of the community and ensure representation from a broad range of suburbs and village areas across the city.
Local governments usually commission the survey in order to support their efforts to encourage bicycle riding within their communities. The primary objective of the survey is to measure participation rather than travel.
In addition to all other public feedback that Council receives and considers annually in relation to the PAMP/Bike Plan (now Active Transport Strategy), the 2020 NCPS was also used as a lead-in to the broader review of the PAMP and Bike Plans – which provided some very useful initial feedback, and led to some changes which were absorbed into the development of the Active Transport Strategy.
Going forward, Council will consider whether to participate in future National Cycling Participation Surveys, as one of several ways to continue benchmarking, and to continue engaging with the community to further improve the Active Transport Strategy.
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What is Active Transport?
It refers to “walking and cycling” (i.e. the healthiest transport option that’s good for us and doesn’t emit or create traffic congestion). The NSW Government wants walking and cycling to be the preferred ways to make short trips, and to be viable, safe and efficient options for longer trips.
What is a PAMP?
PAMP stands for “Pedestrian Access and Mobility Plan” and historically, it has provided the ranking methodology, and mapping to support the expansion of paths, pedestrian crossings and bicycle infrastructure across the city.
What is a Bike Plan?
A Bike Plan is like a PAMP however has the narrower focus on just cycling and cycling infrastructure. Primarily for cycling enthusiasts and those just interested to see the existing and proposed bike networks. The Bike Plan is an extract for displaying existing and proposed bike and cycling infrastructure project
Why did we need a new strategy when we already had a PAMP & Bike Plan?
The NSW Government released its new Active Transport Strategy in December 2022, which draws on the Future Transport Strategy, also released in 2022. The purpose is to double active transport trips in 20 years, following the NSW Government’s vision for safe, healthy, sustainable, accessible and integrated journeys in NSW.
Whilst the PAMP and Bike are fundamentally important elements, and need to be maintained, the mapping needed to be integrated, and it was not helping Council’s cause to have separate criteria to rank PAMP v Bike Plan projects.
Development of the overarching Active Transport Strategy has updated and pulled together the PAMP and Bike Plan, and with a single use ‘Active Transport’ criteria. Developing the strategy in line with the NSW Government’s latest strategy, policy and guidelines, will also help to maximise grant funding opportunities under the plan.
What has happened to the PAMP & Bike Plan?
They still exist – but they’ve been updated and pulled together under the banner of the new Active Transport Strategy.
How do I get my path, crossing, cycleway infrastructure on the list?
First check that they aren’t already on the list! Here’s a link to the latest PAMP Interactive mapping tool where you can see existing and proposed paths and crossings - (PAMP Interactive Mapping Tool).
The maps have been updated to more accurately reflect all built infrastructure, and to capture all proposed facilities (that we know about). If yours still isn’t shown contact Council and let us know, so we can include it as part of our ongoing review of projects for consideration.
How/why were the mapped projects selected?
When the PAMP was first prepared, Council started by asking the community where they wanted paths and sought feedback on the initial selection criteria. By 2005 Council had adopted the first PAMP that covered the whole city. Since that time, the mapping of existing and proposed paths, crossings and bicycle facilities has expanded annually in response to ongoing community requests, or as projects were identified or refined through investigations.
As part of this latest update, an extensive review has been undertaken to fix any errors, ensure consistency with other plans and development approvals, and ensure the network has included as many community requests as possible.
How/why were the ranked projects selected?
Not all projects that are mapped have been ranked (just the ones that we currently anticipate Council will have to initiate, or progress). The ranking is to prioritise projects for Council funds, or to help Council shortlist projects for grant funding consideration.
For example, where we know a development has a condition of consent to construct a path, it doesn’t need to be ranked and where we know (or anticipate) that Transport for NSW may provide paths as part of their major projects, they also don’t need to be ranked.
There may be other examples where short sections of path may only be provided when a crossing improvement is undertaken. Those won’t be ranked as paths but will be ranked separately as crossings, with the path connections to be done at the same time.
After culling those examples, everything else left has been ranked.
Can we make or suggest changes to the priority list?
The priority lists are operational and are updated annually and are kept as current as possible by staff. Even though the formal exhibition period has closed (for the new Strategy which was finalised in January 2025), people are still welcome to provide feedback to Council at any time. New requests will be considered and prioritised by staff as part of the annual maintenance of the Active Transport Strategy priority lists, including application of the new criteria, and other input from ongoing investigations. Whilst the Active Transport Strategy will be a vitally important starting point to inform Council, ultimately Council has the discretion of considering a range of factors when determining its annual budget allocations.
How often will the strategy be reviewed?
For most people, the most important elements of the strategy are the maps and ranking spreadsheets. These documents are operational so they’re updated annually and kept current by staff.
However, the actual strategy documents themselves only need to be updated on a needs basis (for example, if requested by Council, or in response to any changes in legislation, standards, policies or guidelines). Even if these elements remain constant, Council aims to refresh the strategy and seek Council approval, every 5 years, subject to funding. This process also offers Council and the community the chance to reconfirm or amend the project selection criteria.
How has the Active Transport Strategy considered Public Transport?
A focus of the new strategy is integration with Public Transport. Following the successful roll out of the initial “16 Cities program” Council understands that the NSW Government has now commenced early works on the next phase of Regional Public Transport improvements (likely to be called “Integrated Service Plans” - it is expected the new plans will seek to further expand public transport services and more broadly throughout the Shoalhaven). Whilst the current PAMP-Bike Plan mapping doesn’t show all public transport assets at the moment, we’re working on that in the background, and it should be more obvious as the mapping improves over time.