Classifying Roads with the Movement and Place Framework

In the context of transport planning, movement and place are two interconnected concepts that shape the way we design and interact with our transportation systems. Movement refers to the physical act of travelling from one location to another, whether by car, public transport, cycling, or walking, with the expectation that people and goods can move efficiently and safely¹. Place, on the other hand, refers to the physical and social environments that people interact with at the beginning, end, and along their journeys. This includes destinations such as homes, workplaces, shops, and recreational areas, as well as the public spaces and amenities that support social activity and community life. 

New Zealand’s current Movement and Place framework, also known as the One Network Framework (ONF), classifies all roads and streets at a strategic level and, for urban environments these are shown in Figure 1.  This framework is used at a strategic level to classify roads and help identify roads that need to be modified to achieve improved transport outcomes. 

Traditionally road classification systems have focused on the movement, or volume, of vehicles traveling along a route. High volume routes, such as major arterials (or expressways), have a high movement function (M1). Low movement routes (M5) include most suburban streets and laneways, and civic spaces in cities.

Figure 1 -  New Zealand Movement and Places Framework

The Place a routes travels through has not traditionally been acknowledged in road classification systems, until recently. High place areas (P1) include central city areas and busy urban hubs such as shopping streets and mixed-use arterials (eg. around universities). These areas typically generate a lot of pedestrian activity. Low place areas (P4/P5) include the majority of suburban streets and limited access roads. Effective transport planning seeks to balance the need for efficient movement with the need to create vibrant, livable places that support the well-being of individuals and communities.

This framework includes streets which are challenging when considering their safety performance, such as City Hubs and Main Streets (as shown in the circle in Figure 1), and to a lesser degree, Activity Streets. These streets have both a strong movement and place function, and are often referred to as Stroads². In many cities they are often the urban arterial roads with the highest fatal and serious injury crash rates, due to the unsafe mixing of high vehicle through-put (high movement function) and presence of pedestrians and other vulnerable transport modes.

A key road safety focus in any city is to improve safety on these stroads. In New Zealand and Australia we often call these high-risk routes mixed-use arterials. This seems appropriate given the undesirable mix of high movement and high place functions. Austroads research on the effectiveness of treatments on mixed use arterials can be found here.

In my next post I will be discussing the movement and place classfications of new and transformed networks.

[1] While we may assume ‘safely’ is a given, the fact that 8 people die on our roads every 10 days (75 people in total between Jan 1 and March 31 2025), this may not actually be the case.

[2] A Stroad is a street or road that is designed to function as both a thoroughfare for vehicles and a place for people, but often fails to adequately achieve either purpose.