Planning and Transport for Healthy Cities brings together our expertise in understanding how cities are planned and designed to create more just, sustainable and healthy outcomes. Current research activities include: urban planning and governance, transport and mobility, critical infrastructure, digital and technologies, health and wellbeing, urban design.


Acknowledgement of Country

Researchers from the Planning and Transport for Healthy Cities theme acknowledge the people of the Woi wurrung and Boon wurrung language groups of the eastern Kulin Nation and the traditional owners and custodians of Country throughout Australia. We recognise their ongoing unceded sovereignty to land and waters, and acknowledge the wisdom of their Ancestors and Elders, both past and present. As a group of researchers whose work is deeply connected to place, we are committed to supporting the protection of Country by prioritising respect and care for community, place and culture in all that we do.

Projects

Current Projects

AToM

2021 (ongoing)

Activity-based and agent-based Transport model of Melbourne.

Current Projects

Natural Hazards and Resilience in Complex Urban Systems 

2024–2025

This project will help us better understand multidimensional, cascading, and compounding disaster impacts (known and emergent), and the vulnerabilities and resilience of major urban areas in Australia.

Current Projects

Designing liveable neighbourhoods to support healthy ageing

2023–2026

The project investigates the liveability factors that influence healthy ageing.

Current Projects

Developing new safe cycling indicators for inclusion: Australian Urban Observatory

2024–2029

Developing new safe cycling indicators for inclusion in the Australian Urban Observatory digital liveability platform

Current Projects

Developing Tools for Knowledge Translation in Transport and Health Modelling

2022–2025

RMIT’s Healthy Liveable Cities Lab’s city-wide transport and health simulation model aims to support equitable access to walking and cycling across Greater Melbourne.

Current Projects

Voicing First Nations Country, community, and culture in urban policy

2022–2024

This research project, funded by AHURI, collaborates with First Nations custodians in major urban centres to learn from and listen to their experience of attempting to engage with urban policymakers intervening on their Country.

Current Projects

Packed like sardines: Impacts of the apartment boom on public transport in Australian cities

2022–2026

This project is investigating the impacts of high-density housing on public transport use and service provision to directly inform policy and practice for reducing passenger overcrowding and enhancing liveability in cities.

Current Projects

The High Life: Could apartment design policy improve residents’ health and wellbeing?

2018–2026

The High Life project examines the interplay between apartment design policy, the design and location of apartment buildings, and residents’ health and wellbeing outcomes in Perth, Melbourne and Sydney.

Current Projects

Joining Impact models of transport with spatial measures of the Built Environment (JIBE)

2020–2024

Bringing together Australian and UK urban experts to virtually model and test the benefits of transport planning in creating healthier and sustainable cities across both countries.

Current Projects

Communities for Walkability: A citizen science project to connect local spaces and place

(ongoing)

Although much is known about walkability, physical activity and health in large cities, new research is needed to understand the unique context of walkability and health in small rural towns.

Current Projects

Understanding and planning for the health and wellbeing impacts of climate change in the City of Greater Dandenong and the Mornington Peninsula Shire

2021 (ongoing)

This project brings together researchers and practitioners planning for equitable health and wellbeing outcomes for all in the context of a changing climate.

Current Projects

People and Place at Minta Farm

2020 (ongoing)

People and Place at Minta is a longitudinal study exploring the long-term impacts of place-making and innovation initiatives at Stockland’s Minta Farm estate on residents’ sense of wellbeing and active connections to place.

Current Projects

Global Healthy and Sustainable City-Indicators Collaboration

2018 (ongoing)

Good city planning produces co-benefits for individual and planetary health and wellbeing

Current Projects

Activating social connection to address isolation in Australia

2022–2025

Australian Research Council Linkage Project 2022–25

Related Content

News & Blog

CUR Stories

Governments need to be bigger drivers of transport innovation: research

29 July 2021

Despite a host of disruptive new technologies entering Australia’s transport ecosystem, our planning, urban design, infrastructure and transport frameworks remain mired in a twentieth-century policy-making mindset.

CUR Stories

State budget bounce-back: experts on where funding should go

13 May 2021

After undergoing the harshest lockdowns in the country, how should Victoria spend its budget to bounce back? RMIT academics share their expert view on where best to splash the cash for the state’s COVID-19 recovery.

CUR Stories

Road to recovery: experts on where Federal Budget funding should go

05 May 2021

Australia’s economic recovery from COVID-19 has been better than predicted, so what can we expect from this year’s Federal Budget? RMIT academics share their expert view on where the cash can be splashed for the greatest benefit.

CUR Stories

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.

CUR Stories

Reform how our cities are governed to manage urgent urban challenges: report

17 March 2021

Local government collaboration with metropolitan governance in Australian cities must reform to better address urgent urban issues such as climate change action, population growth and urban sprawl, finds new AHURI research.

CUR Stories

AFL returns to Melbourne, but will it be footy as we know it?

17 March 2021

Fans across Melbourne are thrilled for the return of AFL, but with capacity caps on games and other restrictions on attendance, how will fans engage and experience the return of the AFL?

CUR Stories

Think taxing electric vehicle use is a backward step? Here’s why it’s an important policy advance

26 November 2020

The South Australian and Victorian governments have announced, and New South Wales is considering, road user charges on electric vehicles.

CUR Stories

Three key takeaways ahead of the Victorian budget

19 November 2020

As Victoria turns the corner, economic, social housing and urban planning experts point to three key shifts in the upcoming Victorian Budget.

CUR Stories

How can Melbourne’s new apartments steer away from excess car parking?

10 October 2020

New apartments are providing more parking than residents need, leading to smaller and fewer homes for higher prices. RMIT experts discuss how policymakers can get the car parking balance right.

CUR Stories

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.

CUR Stories

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.

CUR Stories

Ten ways RMIT research is helping to build a more sustainable future

21 September 2020

From turning back the emissions clock to building more durable roads from old tyres, RMIT researchers are tackling today’s biggest challenges and developing solutions for a more sustainable world.