Our history

The seed of TPS was planted in June 1994 at a seminar in London, attended by 70 transport planners, which agreed that the sector urgently needed a professional framework.

This led to the creation of the Transport Planning Forum, which included local government representatives, academics, consultants and others. Its objectives were to identify the needs of the profession and investigate the extent to which these needs were being met by existing institutes and organisations.

The Transport Planning Forum met again in 1995 and 1996 to allow practitioners to contribute to the debate.  In accordance with the wishes of the overwhelming majority of those present at the meeting in 1996, the Transport Planning Society was formed in February 1997.

The inaugural meeting of TPS was held in London on 2 July 1997. Over 200 delegates attended the meeting and a committee structure was endorsed.

We now have over 1,600 individual members and more than 38 Stakeholder and Business Directory Members and continue to grow........

In 2008 it became a Company Limited by Guarantee.  The Society and its members are governed by articles of association. The current edition can be viewed by clicking here. 

Annual Review 

Each year TPS publishes an annual review summarising the work and activities of the Society in the previous 12 months. These are available  for download here:

Annual Review 2016

Annual Review 2017

Annual Review 2018

Annual Review 2019

Annual Review 2019/2020

Our Chairs 

Chairs are elected at the AGM by the TPS members  and serve for two years. The complete list of Chairs who have served is as follows. 

Keith Gardner 1997-1999

Keith Mitchell  1999-2001

Elaine Seagriff 2001-2002

Professor Glenn Lyons 2002-3

Richard Walker 2003-2005

Martin Tugwell 2005-2007

Bill Wyley 2007- 2009  

Victoria Hills 2009-2011

Keith Buchan 2011- 2013

Nick Richardson 2013-2015

John Dales 2015-2017

Lynda Addison 2017-2019

Stephen Bennett 2019 -2021

Mark Frost 2021 - 2023

Ben Plowden 2023 -