Chair's Message - November 2023

Chair’s update

It is the season of mists and mellow fruitfulness - the nights are drawing in and Christmas ads have already started appearing on TV. Meanwhile 2024 will be the hottest year ever recorded and COP28 has just got underway in Dubai with news that COP President Sultan Al Jaber believes that a deal to keep average global temperature rises within 1.5C is possible and that the hosts plan to use the Conference to discuss new oil and gas deals with participants. Let’s see what happens...

TPS Board Strategy Day and Business Plan

Following the successful Board Strategy Day in October, we are now developing our plans for the next few years. The Board leads on the key areas of activity (policy, skills, comms, membership, events, finances, governance etc) are working up plans for 2024 (a one-year action plan) and the next five years (a Business Plan). This will allow us to set priorities and make sure we are capitalising on the links between different programmes, such as leveraging our excellent events programme to support membership recruitment. Please get in touch if you have any thoughts on what we should – or shouldn’t! – be doing over the next few years. You can email me at info@tps.org.uk.

Events and engagement

Transport Planning Day 2023 – Institute of Civil Engineers: 13 November 2023

This year’s Transport Planning Day was a big success. We had fantastic keynote presentations from Professor Glenn Lyons from UWE, Emma Griffin from the Foundation for Integrated Transport and Federico Cassini from our Platinum Sponsor Buro Happold. We then had a great panel session featuring Michael Evans-Ford (from sponsors Ioki), Caroline Strickland (Transport for All) Shireen Ali-Khan (Women in Transport), Michael Solomon-Williams (Campaign for Better Transport), Maya Singer (IPPR) and Aoife Dudley (City Science and 2023 Young Transport Planner of the Year runner-up). The panellists brought a really diverse and interesting set of perspectives to bear on the TPD topic – “Planning and Delivering and Rapid and Equitable Transition to a Decarbonised Transport System”. Turnout was high, with 105 people attending in person and a further 90 joining on line and there was some great networking to be done over tea and post-event drinks. The feedback from both delegates and our sponsors was very positive. Thanks again to our sponsors, without who TPD could not happen – Buro Happold, ioki, Stantec, Believ, Charge Surveys, Heuristic Games and Kestrel Surveys.

Walking and Cycling Innovations Conference

I spoke at the Walking and Cycling Innovations 2023 Conference in Manchester on 14 November. There was a wide range of really interesting presentations and discussions, with a focus on the use of technology and data to improve planning for and the experience of walking and cycling. Speaking on the closing panel on “Achieving Public Priorities for Active Travel”, I stressed that despite recent policy developments like the Plan for Drivers and “anti-motorist” rhetoric, we have come a long way since I became the first CEO of the Pedestrians Association in 1997. Back then, there was no Active Travel England or “Gear Change”; no Healthy Streets programme in London or similar programmes in other city regions; and no traffic reduction targets in national (Welsh and Scottish) transport strategies. I recognised that recent Ministerial statements and the Plan for Drivers will be having a “chilling” effect on active travel programmes in many local authorities. And the Climate Emergency means we can’t afford any delay in transitioning to a fair and decarbonised transport system. But as transport planners, we have to recognise that this transition is – unfortunately - a long game and a political challenge as much as a technical one.

What I’m reading

Really interesting to see this research from the Potential Energy Coalition on how to communicate the Climate Emergency (including whether to call it an emergency!). Not everyone will agree with all the suggestions in the research. But there’s no doubt that communicating the climate challenge (and necessary action) in a way that engages people will be critically important to have any chance of meeting that challenge.