Message from the Chair: The importance of equality, diversity and inclusion

Hello again, hope all is well with you.

You may have seen in our news recently that the finalists for the Transport Planning Society Bursary Competition for 2020 have been announced. This competition keeps going from strength to strength, we had a record number of applicants and some terrific papers submitted by the early career professionals who entered. You can read all the papers on our website and look out for the announcement of the winner at our Annual General Meeting in March 2021.

Our theme this year was equality, diversity and inclusion, and regardless of who wins, all of the papers gave great insight and thought to the topic of ‘A transport system that is accessible for everyone – how do we make this happen?’. They covered subjects such as unconscious bias in transport planning, how to create a more accessible transport system, and how to plan transport more inclusively.

This exactly why we chose this topic – to raise and discuss these issues. We are planning transport for diverse communities with a range of people from different backgrounds with different travel needs. Unfortunately, many face barriers related to their gender, age, race, sexuality, income or disability – and it’s our job to remove these.

The UK has high levels of inequality, and transport can play a key role by providing equality of access to opportunities such as jobs, education and other key services such as healthcare and social networks for everyone. We need a diverse range of people planning transport, so we get a diverse range of ideas and solutions that will serve everyone’s needs; too often it is older white middle class males planning for ‘reference man’ to the detriment of all others. And we need inclusion of everyone in the process, both within the profession and in the work we do, for example engaging with a wide range of stakeholders.

We can certainly make more progress on EDI. It’s difficult to find statistics to measure how the transport planning profession performs in these areas. It’s difficult to find a diverse range of speakers for events to promote diversity. It’s difficult to find diverse role models at senior levels in the profession. We hope that by having this theme for our Bursary competition and for our Transport Planning Day campaign this year, we can raise awareness and address these difficulties, so we can create a more diverse and inclusive profession that will plan and deliver a transport system that is truly accessible to everyone.

Look out for more on the topic throughout this year and get in touch if you have any good ideas for related events or activities – we would be pleased to hear from you.

Stephen Bennett

Chair, Transport Planning Society