Arts, Design & Architecture City Futures Research Centre

City Futures Mobility

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people cycling in cycle path along bus

The Mobility Program explores how urban travel shapes our environment, economy, health, and wellbeing. Our vision is that walking, cycling, micromobility, and public transport are the easiest, most natural choices. Through rigorous research and real-world solutions, we shape policy, planning, design, and delivery models that make low-impact, people-focused mobility the default, helping cities meet ambitious environmental, economic, and social goals while enhancing everyday quality of life.

Competitive advantage 

We are a multidisciplinary research team specialising in mobility systems innovation. Our expertise spans urban design, urban planning, landscape architecture, transport planning, economics, data analytics, and modelling, enabling integrated analysis and evidence-based solutions. We collaborate with stakeholders across public and private sectors, apply rigorous research to inform policy, optimise planning processes, and advance implementation strategies. Our projects drive measurable improvements in accessibility, environmental, economic, and enjoyment performance of urban transport networks and the places they interact with.

Our team is connected with local, state, national, and international networks at the forefront of mobility, ensuring we remain informed and engaged with emerging trends and innovations. Recent research projects include infrastructure scenario planning, using VR to test new technologies and street design concepts (national and state projects), analysing local government project delivery models and optimising them through consensus building (international, state and local projects), conducting surveys from national to local street scales (national and local projects), and undertaking project evaluations (international, state and local projects).

Impact

Our research portfolio encompasses a diverse array of impactful projects. Some notable initiatives include contributing to the development of NSW cycleway design guidelines (iMOVE CRC). A key objective of this project was to test the designs in the NSW Cycleway Design Toolbox with ‘interested but concerned’ cyclists and inform the first review and next iteration of the Toolbox. Our team has created an interactive tool for rapid assessment of cycling infrastructure scenarios, optimising the location, routing, and types of cycleways to increase investment return (ARC Linkage). We are collaborating with Transport for NSW, CWANZ, 12 NSW local governments, the Committee for Sydney, and Vivendi Consulting to examine and optimise cycleway project delivery practices (ARC Fellowship). Our efforts extend to establishing a national platform for cycling data and analytics (ARC LIEF) and we continue to collaborate on an Australian-Canadian initiative with our colleagues at Monash University on interventions for all ages and abilities in bicycle networks and speed management (NHMRC).

Successful applications and research highlights

Over the past five years the Mobility Program has been successful in securing several major grants including:

  • two-year grant from iMOVE CRC with Transport for NSW “Safer cycling and street design: A guide for policymakers”
  •  two-year ARC Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment and Facilities (LIEF) grant “The National Cycling Data and Analytics Platform” 
  • five-year National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) grant: “Building CapaCITY/É for Sustainable Transportation”
  • three-year ARC Fellowship “Project Delivery Harmonisation for Urban Micromobility Infrastructure”.

Capabilities and facilities

The Mobility team is supported through various state-of-the-art facilities. The City Analytics Lab (CAL), at the UNSW Kensington Campus is equipped with video walls and interactive touch screens to support both the co-design of new digital tools and end-user workshops to explore location-based insights into the form and function of the city. We collaborate with our colleagues at UNSW’s Research Centre for Integrated Transport Innovation (rCITI) using VR technology to test street design options and emerging technologies.

 

 

Projects

Current

Building CapaCITY/É for Sustainable Transportation

The Building CapaCITY/É for Sustainable Transportation project is a collaborative Australian-Canadian initiative aimed at accelerating the implementation of sustainable transport infrastructure to support healthier, more equitable, and environmentally friendly cities. 

CoS Healthy Streets Longitudinal Study – Oxford Street and Castlereagh Street

This project aims to gather firsthand accounts of people's views, preferences, and overall perceptions before and after the construction of the Oxford Street and Castlereagh Street cycleways.

Sustainable mobility: city-wide exposure modelling to advance bicycling

This project aims to develop a world-leading platform for city-wide modelling of cycling exposure.

The National Cycling Data and Analytics Platform

This project will facilitate the integration, sharing, and dissemination of new and existing cycling-related data. In order to address gaps in the current data and provide a seamless data hub for understanding current cycling trends and the needs of future or potential cyclists, a nationwide survey of cycling attitudes and behaviours will be conducted.

Transport Oriented Development Atlas, Sydney

Transit Oriented Development (TOD) is a dense development model where mixed communities are built around transit nodes to reduce dependence on private vehicles and to increase the use of sustainable transport modes by providing walking and cycling-friendly built environments.

WalkTHERE: multimodal, multi-activity, open-source destination access metrics

This project developed a walkability index, WalkTHERE (Walking Travel from Home to Everywhere Required Everyday) designed to shed light on the potential for walking as a mode of transport.

Professional development
AGSE Cycleway Design Course