Transport planning as a profession distinct from engineering or economics is still very new.  The Transport Planning Professional qualification (TPP) was only established in 2008, at the same time as the TPS Professional Development Scheme.  As such there remains a lot of work to do to explain to a wider audience what transport planners do and why they should be listened to. 

Put simply the profession needs to be ambitious and influential - asserting its integrity and its authority as well as the diverse skills of its members.  Transport planning is complex but that is what makes it challenging and exciting.

After a lengthy process of consultation including the Member Survey and regional meetings, most recently in Birmingham on 19th April, TPS has set out some key principles for transport planning.  These fall into two key areas: first what transport planners should be seeking to achieve, and secondly how the profession should conduct itself while working towards those outcomes.  They are designed to be understandable and capable of influencing behaviour, not just for transport planners but for clients and the wider public.

To view the Principles of Transport Planning click here

The next steps will be to produce more targeted material explaining what transport planners do and using social as well as print media to reach a wider audience. The principles will continue to be discussed as part of TPS activities, in particular the Transport Planning Day campaign and the new community based transport planning awards, culminating in the event on 13th November.  They will form the basis for the criteria for those awards and for an updated TPS code of conduct for transport planning.