TPS Chair's message February 2022

As we start to emerge from the winter months (though my highways management colleagues will be quick to point out it is more likely to snow at Easter than Christmas…), and the risk from Covid-19 variants apparently receding, it feels like a good opportunity to start developing proposals for more face-to-face meetings again.

This is clearly an issue more nuanced for transport planners than perhaps for other sectors. For us, whether we decide to meet ‘in real life’ (IRL) vs digitally, drive not only personal behaviour and consequences, but also demand onto our own networks - and all the externalities that demand brings.  If we don’t walk the walk on constraining demand how can we expect anyone else to?

I’ve seen very well-made points on the merits or otherwise of in-person knowledge exchange on both sides of this debate - and particularly from past TPS chair Professor Glenn Lyons in praise of embracing digital solutions. (2) Post | LinkedIn

There seems no doubt to me that the need for ‘performative travel’ – e.g. jetting around the world attending conferences about reducing carbon emissions from transport (perhaps just to be seen to be doing that) whilst actually doing the exact opposite, must now be under serious scrutiny. 

As an indicator to watch, changes in demand at Heathrow suggests this is exactly what is happening at present.  Demand for air travel is now growing rapidly from its pandemic nadir - however this growth is occurring largely in the leisure and visiting family and friends markets - sometimes clustered under the amusing moniker of ‘revenge travel’.

Business travel on the other hand remains severely supressed (Heathrow says business travel still being ‘suppressed’ by Covid rules | Business Travel News Europe), suggesting possibly that the productivity benefits of virtual meetings are being banked and now form the communication medium of choice for many. It may also be that businesses have a duty of care to employees and travel still seems unnecessarily risky, or perhaps we may be finally seeing the impact of all those ‘net zero by 20xx’ claims on corporate behaviour

(As an aside, such suppression of work travel will no doubt have significant potential impacts for the business case around expansion in aviation capacity, as well as potentially for investment in other infrastructure that is designed primarily to reduce time travelling. This is due to the high value time business travel attracts in TAG guidance forming a key part of the Benefit:Cost Ratio calculation. It will be interesting to see how changes in travel behaviour post Covid 19 will feed through into the TAG data book, which I believe still uses numbers taken from NTS 2009-2012.)

Notwithstanding the above, it remains a fact that the richness of non-digital communication, and the serendipitous nature of in-person interactions, still makes for a very rewarding experience to my mind. 

At the few in-person meetings I managed to attend last Autumn in my capacity as Chair I had the chance to meet a wide range of people, old friends and new, some working on projects and products I didn’t even know existed. Despite the best attempts of event organisers and tech companies over the last eighteen months, it is very difficult to recreate that randomness and strength of connection in a purely digital sense. The very fact that we are a ‘society’ rather than an institution suggests an onus on us to actively try and create a space where a sense of shared identity, customs can be developed – an endeavour which can be difficult to achieve entirely digital, perhaps particularly for people new to the industry.

It is therefore with some excitement, albeit a little bit of trepidation, that TPS has started to again plan for in-person sessions. Our first will be hosted at Jacobs' office in London in May, followed by an event at WSP’s new premises in Birmingham in September. And the big finale will be our Transport Planning Day event on 14 November at Institute of Civil Engineers. Further details of these events will be coming soon.

I know many of our regional reps are also working on plans for in-person sessions in 2022 so many more events will hopefully be added to that list in coming weeks and months.  If you would like to get involved in organising events and activities in your region please contact us info@tps.or.uk.

Please be assured that we have no plans to completely abandon the digital space. We have found webinars to be a very helpful addition to in-person meetings and have a number of these also planned across my second year. We particularly recognise the role these can play in increasing access to current conversations in the sector amongst those less able to attend meetings in person.

We always welcome suggestions for topics to explore, so please do get in touch via info@tps.org.uk if you have an idea you feel would be of interest to other members.