Message from the Chair: Challenges and Opportunities

Hello again and hope this finds you well.  My reflection this month is on the array of challenges and opportunities facing the transport planning profession.

In terms of challenges, we of course have the ongoing pandemic and the issues this brings: The need to respond rapidly to changing government guidance, to implement temporary measures to accommodate travel with social distancing, whether that’s changes to streets for more active travel or managing the public transport network:  The need to manage the gradual return of traffic levels and support people using active travel to try and lock-in behaviour change to more sustainable modes. In the private sector, there is a need to help clients respond to the changing situation and try and understand the changing market for travel and transport.

Then there is the wider challenge of the current economic situation and the gloomy economic outlook, with many transport planners already losing their jobs as companies reduce numbers and funding is reduced for transport, and others furloughed for a period of time.  This all brings challenges for us both professionally and personally.

However, I think there are also some interesting and significant opportunities for transport planners.  The pandemic has created an opportunity for transport planning, particularly around a sustainable recovery that gets us on the right trajectory for decarbonisation of the transport system to achieve the legally-binding target of 'net zero' greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.  With the government likely to invest in transport infrastructure to stimulate the recovery, and with its publication of its bold ambitions for active travel, there is a huge need for transport planners and transport planning skills right now.

Some of this need will be for our traditional skills in areas such as major scheme development, transport modelling and assessment and appraisal, street design and planning for local transport.  But we will also need to develop new skills in:

(i) data analytics, to measure and assess the rapid changes we are seeing 

(ii) carbon assessment, to fully understand carbon budgets at national and local levels and to ensure that projects we are promoting are in line with the net zero targets,

(iii) engaging with local communities to build support and consensus for changes to their travel behaviour and local transport systems, and

(iv)  collaborating with other sectors, such as spatial planning, education and health to ensure we can meet the net zero targets but also reap the benefits of a healthier and more sustainable transport network.

It’s a bewildering, uncertain and rapidly changing situation.  We need to be flexible and adaptable and resilient.  There are challenges.  But there are also opportunities.  Transport planning is a great profession and needed more than ever, so let’s do our best to overcome the challenges and seize the opportunities.

And if you can, don’t forget to take a break over the summer to recover and refresh and recharge.

Stephen Bennett

Chair, Transport Planning Society

 

 
 
 
 

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