Message from the Chair: Brace yourselves for our autumn events!

Forget Covid, lockdowns and track-and-trace, forget Brexit, lorry parks and no deals, forget Trump’s taxes and dodgy data dealings, and anything else that might give you cause for gloom, because your Society has an exciting autumn schedule planned for you – oh yes! The Society’s aim is to ‘facilitate, develop and promote best practice in transport planning and provide a focus for dialogue between all those engaged in it’, and we have events and projects that will do just that.

You will find all the details in our monthly Bulletin, but let me just share with you some of the highlights.

Firstly, over the summer we have been working hard with the University of Hertfordshire to prepare our first ever State of the Nationsreport on ‘transport planning for a sustainable future’. This is just about complete now and will be launched at a (transport) star-studded online parliamentary event on 20 October 2020. This will include the Chair of the Transport Select Committee, Huw Merriman MP, plus other members of the Committee, who will be debating the findings of the report with us. All members will be invited so look out for that and make sure you don’t miss it!

Secondly, we are firming up our plans for (can you believe it) our third annual Transport Planning Day event on 16 November 2020. This also has a transport celebrity line-up including Rachel Maclean MP, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department for Transport, and Will Norman, London’s Walking and Cycling Commissioner. And if that isn’t enough for you, we will also be presenting the findings of our joint research project with the Royal College of Art on reimagining community placemaking and transport planning, plus we’ll be announcing the winners of our children’s ‘Inspiring the Transport Planners of the Future poster competition. 

And on top of all of that we’ll be encouraging you to hold your own events for Transport Planning Day to celebrate all the great work that we do and encourage a broader range of people to join us in this great career. So keep your eyes peeled for news and events over the next few weeks and make sure you join in the fun.

Stephen Bennett

Chair, Transport Planning Society