But what exactly will that look like?

Think about having to get from one end of the city to another - living in Wendouree and needing to get a dentist appointment in Sebastopol, for example, or checking out the Black Hill reserve while living in Alfredton.

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Right now, the majority of people who have access to a car will use it to get from one point to another, and it can certainly take a while.

But even if more people are working from home, years after the effects of the coronavirus pandemic, our roads will get busier to the point where we'll resemble Melbourne, or worse.

Council wants more people living in the central business district, while outer suburbs are pushing further out to the west and north, and these new residents will still want to get to shopping centres and activity hubs, and get to Melbourne as well.

Adding to the pressure, the continued investment in BWEZ will lead to more trucks and freight trains heading through Ballarat as well by 2040.

Over the past few months, council, experts, and public transport advocates have been compiling ideas about how to deal with all these issues - council's Integrated Transport Plan was released earlier this year, with the hope it will inform planning decisions and keep the city accessible.

Already, things are changing - by February, the half-million dollar Ballarat Line Upgrade will be complete, with a new timetable promising more frequent and reliable services to and from Melbourne.

Once that's up and running, it's expected Ballarat's struggling bus network will be reviewed.

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Reshaping the network is a key priority for many of the city's leaders, as even before the pandemic, usage was not at what it could be.

This meant more cars on the road and fighting for car parks - taking a bus was not seen as a convenient option for people who need to get around town.

As an example, a new stop within the Delacombe Town Centre was only hooked up to the network in November, three years after the shopping centre opened.

Connecting more activity centres - that is, destinations where people actually want to go, like the university, Mars Stadium, parks and tourist attractions, and potentially even car parks - to a network that doesn't rely exclusively on getting to and from the train station will help get more people on board.

By 2040, even getting around the CBD for short trips could be unrecognisable.

Active transport - walking and cycling - remain on the table, particularly given the awakening many people had during the pandemic in their own neighbourhoods.

More infrastructure to help get people around safely will be built, like the new shared paths along the Sturt Street gardens.

This year, council had conversations with electric scooter operators, with a push to help get people around for shorter trips and bring a new tourist attraction to the city.

We might also see the return of trams, but not as we know them.

The Committee for Ballarat has supported trials for autonomous buses, and has floated ideas for trackless trams operating in the CBD.

The Committee's chief executive, Michael Poulton, is a believer in Ballarat getting behind these new technologies early to solve problems.

Getting from one end of Sturt Street to the other - having a picnic at Victoria Park before meeting a friend for dinner near Grenville Street, let's say - could be as easy as jumping on a trackless tram that runs loops all day up and down the street.

He said to get that to happen, planners need to consider revolutionary changes like permanent bus lanes along the entire street.

If it's hard to do, people will not do it, so bringing a new technology like this into the mix must be made easy for people.

"We don't want to spend time in traffic jams," he said.

"In 2040, we have to see those things as being realistic - I'm confident we're heading that way, because we can't continue to choke our cities with more and more cars.

"The technology shows us there are better ways of doing things - if there are genuinely good alternatives, then the economics and the will to look at doing things differently from a transport perspective is there."

Public Transport Users Association Ballarat convenor Ben Lever agreed - an expert on all things transportation, he said the key to maintaining liveability in our city is reducing the "dependence" on cars.

"Trying to double the amount of cars, and trying to serve them all with roadspace and parking, would really make for a dysfunctional and unpleasant city," he said in a statement.

"We need to do this in multiple ways - partly by improving public transport connections within Ballarat, but also by improving walking and cycling infrastructure to make these options safe and attractive for everyone. We also need to have a better-integrated urban form, with more shops and jobs mixed in amongst houses, rather than having huge residential-only areas - so that more destinations are within walking and cycling distance of people's homes.

"Having a slightly higher density of uses, such as more townhouses compared to detached housing, also helps encourage these forms of mobility.

"It would be a really poor outcome for everyone if we have too much greenfields sprawl, because these fringe suburbs are really hard to serve with active and public transport - which tends to make them car-dependent.

"This isn't just a problem for the people who live in those suburbs - the traffic it generates causes problems in the centre of town.

"We should be aiming for as much medium-density infill development as possible - for example, converting under-used shop-top spaces in Bridge Mall into residences would give those people easy access to walk, cycle or take public transport anywhere in the city, or to the station to travel further afield."

Council's Integrated Transport Plan notes this as well, with one of the priorities listed as advocating and trialling new ideas as well as increasing active transport.

Another push is for completing big infrastructure projects like the Ballarat Link Road, which right now connects the Western Freeway past BWEZ to Remembrance Drive.

The next stage will upgrade Dyson Drive, connecting to a new roundabout on Carngham Road, eventually leading to the Glenelg Highway.

Council says this is a crucial bit of road, as the west continues to boom, and will provide a safer north-south connection with more capacity.

While the project missed out on funding in this year's state and federal budgets, the city's leaders have committed to continue lobbying for it.

Faster rail has also been a topic of interest for years, and while advocates like the Committee were disappointed by the state government's decision not to build a dedicated tunnel to increase capacity for regional lines, there's plenty more work ahead.

It's hoped the state government's Western Rail Plan will lead to electrified and quadruplicated lines to Melton - basically, putting Melton and all the new stations near it on the metropolitan lines, and letting regional trains to Ballarat and beyond bypass them all.

Mr Lever said he hoped by 2040, there would be full duplication on the entire line.

"The Ballarat Line Upgrade project gets us a lot of capacity on the outer sections of the line - we'll need to wait and see how the reliability holds up, but it's likely that will be enough to hold us over for a few years," he said.

"So after the Melton electrification and quadding, the next priority will be implementing higher-speed electric trains to Ballarat - both to reduce travel time, and make train travel even more environmentally sustainable.

"We also need to make some more progress in Ballarat's connectivity to other regional centres. Returning direct passenger trains from Ballarat to Geelong should be a high priority, as well as upgrading the train services to Ararat and Maryborough, extending those lines further, and improving connections to places like Bendigo and Warrnambool."

There could also be movement on the BWEZ intermodal freight hub proposal, which Mr Lever said is important to keep in mind.

"Ballarat already has strong road links, being on the Western Freeway between Melbourne and Adelaide, and we're at the junction of several railway lines, but the rail links aren't anywhere near as robust," he said.

"Improving those freight railway links, including things like gauge conversion, adding crossing loops, and improving the weight capacity of the tracks, would make Ballarat a better place for a number of industries."

Big infrastructure ideas take time - think about the Deer Park bypass and Bacchus Marsh realignment, finally completed last decade.

The highway duplication between Sale and Traralgon in the state's east is still incomplete after more than a decade, with the last parts only funded this year.

By getting the planning in the middle of the city right in the short-term, Ballarat will be more than ready for the thousands of people who can't wait to move here by 2040.

"My daughter's children will not want to drive cars, it won't be their first choice for a mode of transport," Mr Poulton said.

"A system that designs in highly-efficient next-generation public transport for connectivity within a city, and between cities, is absolutely crucial."

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