Brisbane's Transport Fix Starts With Better Land Use Planning

Brisbane's growing traffic congestion and strained public transport network are symptoms of a deeper problem, according to a leading Queensland transport engineer: the city has simply grown in the wrong way.

David Hayward, director of Aptura Consulting and chair of the Engineers Australia Transport Australia Society Queensland branch, says Brisbane's sprawling, low-density footprint makes it structurally difficult for public transport to serve most residents effectively.

"Brisbane is fundamentally a North American-style radial city," Hayward says. "Public transport is designed to funnel people into the CBD, but the population has spread outward at densities where buses and trains simply can't be economically viable for most trips."

The result is a city where car dependency is baked into the built environment — not just through habit, but through a lack of realistic alternatives. Hayward argues that fixing this requires a shift in thinking away from the traditional transport planning debate of roads versus rail, and toward a more fundamental question: what kind of city do we want Brisbane to be?

Central to his argument is the chronic undervaluing of walking and cycling. While billions are invested in road and rail infrastructure, pedestrian networks and safe cycling corridors are often treated as afterthoughts. Yet a significant proportion of daily trips — particularly short ones — could realistically be made on foot or by bike, if the infrastructure existed to support it.

"Most transport planning centres on cars and public transport. Walking barely gets a look-in," says Hayward, who also serves on the board of Queensland Walks. "But if you look at where people are going and how far they're travelling, there's enormous potential to convert short car trips into walking or cycling trips — if the conditions are right."

The solution, in Hayward's view, lies in cultivating mixed-use precincts around suburban shopping centres and public transport hubs. By co-locating housing, employment, education and services, councils and state government can reduce the distances people need to travel in the first place. That makes active transport genuinely competitive with the car for everyday trips.

Trip lengths across Greater Brisbane and south-east Queensland are increasing at a scale the city hasn't experienced before, he warns. Public transport investment alone cannot absorb that growth — particularly when much of it is happening in outer suburbs poorly connected to rail corridors.

The 2032 Brisbane Olympics looms as both an opportunity and a cautionary tale. Hayward notes that no previous Olympic host city has left a meaningful walking or active transport legacy after the Games. Infrastructure built for athletes and spectators rarely translates into lasting improvements for ordinary residents.

"The Olympics can be a catalyst, but it's not guaranteed," he says. "Every host city has had the same conversation about legacy, and most haven't delivered on active transport. Brisbane has a chance to be different, but it will take deliberate planning decisions now — not just during the Games build-up."

Hayward acknowledges the challenge of retrofitting a city already built around the car. The ideal mixed-use, walkable urban form is easier to plan on paper than to deliver within existing suburbs shaped by decades of low-density development. But he argues the direction of travel is clear: combine smarter land use decisions with targeted infrastructure investment, and focus on unlocking the potential of shorter trips.

"You can't solve Brisbane's transport problem by building more roads or more rail lines in isolation," he says. "The city that emerges from the next 20 years of growth will be defined by planning decisions made right now about where people live, work and move."