Message from the Chair: Reaching out with online events

Hello again everyone, I hope this finds you safe and well.  

We were blown away by the online attendance for our Annual Lecture – thank you to all those who joined.  We had a peak of 182 people on the call, which I think is a TPS record!  This would of course be largely due to our excellent speaker, Susan Claris, our Transport Planner of the Year, who gave a fascinating review of her journey in transport planning and her thoughts on a more diverse and active future.  I think it was also due to the fact that holding these events online is a great leveller, it means anyone can join from anywhere (time zones permitting).  We had a nice comment from an attendee at the end of the event, which said ‘Thank you so much – from Aberdeen would never normally be able to attend TPS events!’.  The TPS Board recognises this and we are looking at how we can hold more of our events online in future so we can include and get participation from more of our members.  If you missed the event, it is available to watch on the ICE website –   https://www.ice.org.uk/eventarchive/transport-planning-a-more-diverse-future-webinar

It’s a time of mixed fortunes for transport planners at the moment.  There are great opportunities to ‘build back better’ with more active travel programmes being implemented in many areas, with local authority transport teams having real success in some places providing more space for walking and cycling.  Yet we also face some huge challenges; with government advice not to use public transport unless absolutely essential there is a risk of a surge in car use and a missed opportunity to change travel habits, and of course the impact this is having on public transport services.  So transport planners need to keep pushing to take advantage of the opportunity to promote safe and sustainable transport modes before travel behaviour fully returns to ‘normal’.

We also recognise that the economic conditions mean that there is uncertainty of workload for transport planners in some areas and we are starting to see cost reductions and redundancies in the private sector.  We are looking at ways to support people affected by these developments, for example through the job opportunities on our website and by ensuring people can continue with their professional development between jobs.

The TPS Board continues to work hard to ensure that we support the profession during these challenging times and provide a wide range of activities to debate the current issues and agree on our responses, as individuals or as a profession – you can read more about these in this Bulletin. 

Best wishes

Stephen Bennett

Chair, Transport Planning Society

 
 
 
 

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