Mornington Peninsula Shire is seeking community insight into its draft Integrated Transport Strategy, which will be placed on public exhibition for eight weeks.
The strategy sets a long-term vision for a connected transport network across the peninsula. It provides framework for planning, investment, advocacy, and collaboration to help meet the peninsula’s growing mobility demands.
At the 9 June council meeting, councillors voted unanimously for the draft to be placed on public exhibition from 23 June to 18 August.
Cr Max Patton, who moved the motion, thanked council officers and the traffic and transport team for their work on the strategy.
“Unlike high density growth areas, our mix of linear, dispersed and peri-urban development patterns increase the spatial and financial complexity of providing efficient, accessible transport,” said Patton.
Patton said this is compounded by the fact 21.4% of peninsula residents live with a disability, 41.2% of households own two or more cars, and 31% of vehicle trips are under 3kms.
“This really highlights the latent opportunity for active and public transport alternatives across the peninsula,” said Patton.
This draft strategy consolidates multiple existing transport and infrastructure strategies into one.
“Contemporary transport planning has shifted away from mode specific strategies toward network thinking, recognising that travel behaviour is shaped by the quality of entire trip chains rather than any single mode in isolation,” said Patton.
He said the strategy aligns with Victoria’s Movement and Place framework which sees walking, cycling, public transport, roads, and freight as an interdependent system which prioritises movement of people over movement of vehicles.
“Consolidating these strategies also resolves a fundamental governance problem where mode specific documents conflict over limited road space and capital budgets,” said Patton.
“The integrated strategy makes those trade-offs explicit and subject to a single coherent set of priorities, producing a document capable of driving investment decisions rather than parallel advocacy that leaves conflicts unresolved.”
Cr Patrick Binyon highlighted the ageing population of the peninsula and the number of residents that rely on accessible footpaths and safe crossings.
“Those needs need to be reflected in our long term planning,” said Binyon.
“Before we obviously lock in a strategy that’s going to help guide our transport planning it’s definitely important that our community has that opportunity to review and tell us honestly what they think.”
Binyon said the strategy recognises many peninsula residents don’t have access to frequent public transport and rely heavily on their vehicles.
“The strategy recognises that reality while still looking for opportunities to improve walking, cycling, and other transport options that make sense,” said Binyon.
Cr David Gill said environmental impacts should be considered in the strategy.
“I’m hopeful that our community will put in feedback on those sorts of issues,” said Gill.
He said the integrated strategy commits to aligning transport investments with the council’s vision of zero lives lost on the roads.
“The basis of this comes down to road safety is so important on the Mornington Peninsula,” said Gill.
“I lean towards road safety, but I also hope that environmental factors can be considered.”
Cr Andrea Allen said she is interested to hear public opinion on shared bike and foot paths.
“I’m keen to hear people’s views on the idea of having all of our principal network paths at a minimum width of 2.5 metres where that’s feasible,” said Allen.
The Integrated Transport Strategy will be placed on public exhibition on 23 June, with plans for social media, website updates, surveys, and drop-in sessions to be used to gain community feedback.
First published in the Mornington News – 23 June 2026
