Transport Planning Society’s 25^th anniversary – past-chairs’ dinner

A meeting of the most influential transport planners in the industry

On Thursday 20^th October, our past-chairs met at One Great George Street in London for a dinner to celebrate our Silver anniversary. As well as a celebration of our Society, the goal of the evening was to discuss how we can position ourselves to best serve the transport planning profession throughout the next 25 years. In attendance were some of the most influential, distinguished individuals in the industry who have helped make our Society, and the wider transport planning industry, the success that it is today.

‘Everything is politics’

German author Thomas Mann famously said ‘Everything is Politics’. While the accuracy of this assertion is debated, it’s undeniable that as transport planners we always need to understand the political context of our work. There was a clear consensus among our past-chairs that transport planners often lack a seat at the table with regards to major transport (and wider political) decisions. And many transport planners lack the necessary stakeholder engagement and public affairs skills to effectively influence decision makers, particularly at the central government level.

The chairs agreed knowing how to engage political decision makers, when to engage them and who to engage, is a fundamental skill that all transport planners should have. As well as developing these skills internally, the profession should make use of external support in this space, namely public affairs and stakeholder engagement consultancies. The ex-chairs wanted transport planners to have a better understanding of our political system and how to operate effectively inside it.

Getting transport planners a seat at the table is a more difficult issue and the attendees understood this. The feeling of the room was that this is partly a communications issue. Transport planners fail to tell our story in a compelling and convincing way which demands the attention of decision makers. Our past-chairs also believed getting notable, prominent transport planners, many of whom were sitting round the table on the night, into positions of political power would be of huge value. Decision makers who have a background in the profession are going to be more understanding of the transformative power of transport planning. Transport planners often find a disconnect between the work we want to do and the work we actually do, shaping the political agenda should reverse this trend.  

The next generation of planners

There was an understanding throughout the night that attracting, engaging and supporting the next generation of transport planners was an absolute necessity for the Transport Planning Society. The decisions that transport planners make today must be made with future generations in mind. Cultivating the next generation of talent is vital as these are the people who have the largest stake in future society and also have the radical ideas to meet future travel demand. The chairs reminisced about our origin story – particularly the idea of the Society as a safe space to express ideas for radical change. This underpinning principle will be key to attracting future talent. We understand this and have training schemes in place which many past-chairs recognised and highlighted throughout the night. The Professional Development Scheme was mentioned by several attendees who praised it for the support it provides graduates from apprenticeship through to chartership. We also run the annual bursary scheme which highlights and awards the best young transport planners currently working in the profession. Our past-chairs suggested some ideas to further develop our work in this area, such as networking events aimed solely at young professionals.

Changing the make-up of the profession

Looking around the room, we all agreed that, in terms of diversity, the profession has not progressed as much as we would have liked since the Society started. Our past-chairs all agreed that it’s crucial for transport planners to represent the people we serve. Encouraging a diverse pipeline of people into the workforce and supporting them throughout their careers will increase the likelihood of us meeting the wide range of customer needs that the transport industry must cater for. The past-chairs noted that support for employees from under-represented groups should be guaranteed  throughout their careers. Increasing entry and graduate level representation but failing to address diversity issues at a more senior level is not good enough.

Transport and land use planning and beyond

The need for better integration of transport and land use planning is an important policy issue which was raised several times throughout the evening and has been a key campaigning issue for many of our past-chairs. To achieve our wider policy goals such as decarbonisation, Net Zero and improved public health, transport planning and land use planning cannot be dealt with individually. One chair pointed out that engaging with and building relationships with the Department for Levelling up, Housing and Communities (DHLUC) was essential to this.

But many of us agreed we should go further, arguing that transport planners must work in collaboration with a much wider breadth of disciplines. Whether this is computer scientists, lawyers or health professionals, it’s the job of the transport planner to think bigger and wider than just transport.

The need for an excellent sub-regional strategy was discussed with the chairs pointing to London as an example of success. Most agreed devolution will have a major role to play in transport planning moving forward, with Local Authorities and communities needing to be in power of their own infrastructure funding.

Telling our story

Finally, our past-chairs raised the need for us to bring people along on the journey. This relates to the point made earlier in the evening about political engagement. Transport planners must clearly and effectively tell our story to build understanding and advocacy for the work we do. Those working inside the industry understand how important our work is, but too often decision makers, and the people who vote for the decision makers, don’t.

To take us forward for the next 25 years, transport planners must find new and innovative ways to engage all sections of the communities we serve and the decision makers we need to influence, as well as inspiring the younger generation to choose transport planning as a career. Effective communications and building compelling narratives will be key to this, to raise awareness and build support for the overarching goals of our Society and the transport planning profession as a whole.