Draft Wollongong Integrated Transport Strategy

On Monday 15 September, our Council supported an ambitious 10-year plan that aims to strengthen the way people can get from A to B and stay anywhere in between.

This long-awaited Wollongong Transport Strategy 2025 – 2035 has been endorsed and outlines how Council can advocate, plan, invest and improve our transport network. This is the first transport strategy to capture the entire Local Government Area. It’s a progressive step forward to ensure our network is future-ready, people-focused and can complement Wollongong’s growing population.

You can take a look at our new Wollongong-Transport-Strategy-2025-2035 which is now live on our website, as well as the Media Release we issued on 18 September.

What we heard and what we did

Here is a summary of what our community told us and how we responded when finalising this new strategy:

1. Making the strategy clear and doable

• People were worried about fitting all the actions into 10 years with limited resources
  → The Action Plan was trimmed down, with some items moved to an “opportunities” section. Advocacy items are included but not Council-led.
• Feedback asked for simpler language and layout
  → The Strategy was restructured and made easier to read.

2. Safety, accessibility and inclusion

• Concerns raised for older adults, people with disabilities, carers, women, and kids
  → Their needs are now better highlighted, backed by data.

3. Joined-up planning

• Strong support for coordinated transport planning across government, industry, and community
  → Roles and responsibilities are now clearly outlined.
• Calls to link transport and land use planning.
  → The Strategy now reflects key transport networks and Wollongong’s role in the national economy. It will guide advocacy and project planning.

4. Infrastructure and maintenance

• Requests for specific upgrades to roads, paths, and cycleways.
  → The Strategy gives broad guidance; location-specific issues will be handled through other plans or future projects.

5. Supporting sustainable transport

• Calls for better public transport and safer infrastructure
  → Public transport is a key focus, with attention to safety, nighttime travel, and new services like the Southern Gong Shuttle.
• Need for better connections to key places like schools, hospitals, and job hubs
  → The Action Plan includes advocacy for improved services to these areas.
• Suggestions to encourage people to shift to sustainable transport
  → The Strategy highlights the need for behaviour change and shared responsibility.

6. Road space use

• Mixed views on how road space should be used (parking vs traffic vs cycling)
  → The Strategy supports more transport options and uses a case-by-case approach based on the road’s function, guided by the Transport for NSW Movement and Place framework.

Thank you again for your interest in this project. We hope you are as excited as we are to kick off this 10-year plan.

What we did

We reached key stakeholders, and the broader community via email, media releases, e-newsletter, Illawarra Mercury Community Update, Council website, Council social media posts, Library displays, community info sessions and meetings. The project page received 1,500 unique views. 46 people participated in drop-in info sessions for community members to speak with traffic and transport planners and engineers. Council officers also met with 10 Aboriginal elders in two community group settings.

Community Info Session Wollongong Library

What we heard

95 submissions were received during the Public Exhibition. These came from individuals and a range of government, industry, and community organisations. Key themes included:

• Support for integrated transport planning and the desire for ongoing collaboration and coordination between government, industry, and community.
• Calls for public transport service and infrastructure improvements.
• Auditing infrastructure to address gaps in the active transport network to improve safety, connectivity and the uptake of walking and cycling.
• Suggested interventions to support the growth of sustainable transport including electric vehicles.
• Location specific infrastructure or maintenance requests for road, footpath, shared path, and cycleway networks and connections.
• Calls to improve connectivity including east-west links, links to the city centre, educational institutions, healthcare precincts, industry and employment hubs, urban release areas and other growth areas.
• Calls to integrate land use planning and key development areas with transport planning to maximize the effectiveness of the strategy.
• Safety and/or accessibility concerns for older people, people with disability, people with hidden disability, carers, women, and school children.
• Mixed views on the allocation of road space for either parking, traffic, or cycleways.
• Concerns about implementing the proposed actions within the timeframe and available resources.
• Suggestions for promoting sustainable transport options to drive behaviour change.

See the Engagement Report for details.

Next steps

The project team will analyse all submissions and prepare a report to Council for adoption of the final strategy. The Council report will include a table listing relevant items of feedback, response to the issue raised and any resulting edits made to the strategy. The Engagement team will update the community and engagement participants prior to the Council Meeting.