Urban policy and infrastructure planning

07 October 2022

The election of a Labor Government at the 2022 federal election has brought new attention to policies for climate change mitigation and energy transition, with an accelerated minimum target of 43 per cent reduction in emissions by 2030 now legislated. Cities and suburbs will be central to achieving the climate target as concentrated sites of […]

Is temporary the new permanent? COVID street experiments open our eyes to creating better cities

20 March 2021

If the past year has made us more comfortable and confident with experimenting, all the better to help our cities meet the challenges ahead.

How can urban and environmental planning shape a post-pandemic future?

04 October 2020

The adversities of COVID-19 have no doubt changed the way we think about our environments. Here, our teachers discuss the role urban, regional and environmental planning has in shaping a post-pandemic future.

How can we better prepare suburban Melbourne for climate change?

24 September 2020

Climate change presents critical challenges for future development, sustainability and resilience across Melbourne. Here, our experts offer insights on how we can better prepare our outer suburbs.

A time to embrace the edge spaces that make our neighbourhoods tick

01 June 2020

As we emerge from COVID-19 lockdowns, it is timely to reflect on how the design of our neighbourhoods and the ways we interact with them affect our lived experience.

4 ways our streets can rescue restaurants, bars and cafes after coronavirus

28 May 2020

As Australia re-opens, the bars, cafes and restaurants that give life to our streets face a tough ask: stay open and stay afloat with just a fraction of the customers.

No need to give up on crowded cities – we can make density so much better

18 February 2020

The more immediate need is to focus on improving conditions in our major cities. Our smaller towns matter, but we can’t neglect the urgent need to get better at doing the bigger ones right.

Meet Claire Boulange: Expert in urban analytics for healthy cities

20 June 2019

Can video games like SimCity help smart city design? Dr Claire Boulange explains how planning can be playful to build healthy liveable cities for all.

Of all the problems our cities need to fix, lack of car parking isn’t one of them

17 May 2019

Parking is a fiery issue in Australian cities. That’s because cars dominate our cities, supported by decades of unbalanced planning decisions favouring space for cars over other land uses or forms of transport

Crowded trains? Planning focus on cars misses new apartment impacts

12 May 2019

Wondering why you can’t get a seat on the train? Perhaps it’s because we don’t actually know how many extra people will use public transport when new building developments are planned.

Meet the women helping plan the cities of tomorrow

05 March 2019

As Melbourne grows, we need to better plan how we build healthy, equitable and liveable cities. Here four RMIT researchers talk about how their work is helping deliver better cities.

Livin’ on the edge: How to plan a new suburb on Melbourne’s fringe

18 February 2019

With the Victorian Government releasing 50,000 housing lots for 12 new suburbs on Melbourne’s urban fringe, how can we ensure new areas like these are liveable and thrive?

Six ways to keep Melbourne moving at 8 million

11 February 2019

More people living in Melbourne means more trips across our transport network. RMIT experts share their views on how to plan for this pressure and keep our city moving.

Researchers inviting participants for transport project

22 August 2018

A team of researchers at RMIT University are seeking interview participants for the project “Early delivery of equitable and healthy transport options in new suburbs: Critical reform and tools”.

Tokyo’s heatwave suggests risky temperatures for the 2020 Olympics. Here’s what the city can do

21 August 2018

The Northern Hemisphere is currently suffering an unprecedented heatwave. In Japan, more than 100 people have died and tens of thousands more are in hospital due to heat-related illness.

How many people make a good city? It’s not the size that matters, but how you use it

08 August 2018

Australia’s population clock is, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, steadily ticking away at an overall total population increase of one person every 1 minute and 23 seconds.

Sydney liveability scorecard reveals urban wins and fails

24 July 2018

A new report measuring Sydney’s liveability progress has found that the city is struggling to meet its public transport targets, but other Australian capitals should aim to replicate its ambitious policies.

The evolution of metropolitan planning

18 May 2018

If one were to conduct an opinion poll among all the urban planners currently employed by local government authorities across metropolitan Melbourne with regard to the issue of state government regulation and interference, one might be reasonably safe to assert that the survey response would be ‘there is too much.’

Can remote sensing help answer planning and transport policy questions?

With cars stationary 95 percent of the time, car parking is essential to car-based travel. Parking is also a widespread and controversial policy concern in planning and land use decisions. 

The mark of the covenant on housing and planning

The recent Reserve Bank of Australia report The Effect of Zoning on Housing Prices put forward the argument that restrictive zoning is driving Australian house prices up - particularly in Melbourne and Sydney - arguing that that planning policy reform is necessary in order to meet projected population increases.

Expert comment on Infrastructure Australia priority list

27 March 2018

RMIT University infrastructure expert Dr Ian Woodcock says the Victorian projects in Infrastructure Australia’s 2018 priority list will “lock Melburnians into increasingly toll-paying car dependence”.

All the signs point to our big cities’ need for democratic, metro-scale governance

01 March 2018

Infrastructure Australia has called for metropolitan-scale governance of Australia’s largest cities. The new report by the Commonwealth’s statutory infrastructure agency, which sought to scope out the prospects for Sydney and Melbourne over the next 25 years, identifies integrated governance and leadership as keys to success.

Transurban’s West Gate tollway is a road into uncharted territory

21 December 2017

Like the controversial East West Link, this project has no electoral mandate, and was rushed through the formal planning processes. It’s also part of a trend seen in other Australian states for projects to be announced before alternative planning options are considered.

The price for abundant free car parking is greater than we think

18 August 2017

Car parking - we all use it and expect it everywhere, but the hidden cost it has on our cities is huge.