TPS Chairs message September 2021

Having enjoyed a British summer time in its finest possible tradition (with rickets perhaps more of a risk than sunburn in my experience) we head back - some of us perhaps even nervously back to the office itself for the first time in 18 months - to what will no doubt be a typically hectic autumn for transport professionals.

TPS is no exception to that hecticness, with a packed calendar of events associated with our Transport Planning Day 2021 campaign around Equality, Diversity and Inclusion.  The first of these on the evening of the 9^th September is an impressive round up of last year's successful bursarians talking on a wide range of subjects linked to this theme.  More information here. 

Parliamentary events with the Transport Select Committee and relevant All Party Parliamentary Groups linked to our theme remain in planning. Transport Planning Day itself on 15 November is shaping up nicely with speaker announcements coming soon.

Full information on our Transport Planning Day campaign is available here. 

In terms of other recent activity as Chair, I was pleased to be asked to provide a few words alongside fellow board member Lucy Marstrand to the BBC reporter, Russell Newlove, in his article exploring the possible pitfalls of a rush towards electric mobility, available here:   Never mind going electric, where will we park? - BBC News

Our topline message was that transport planners want to see more focus and investment on planning for people.  If you plan for traffic, you get traffic, if you plan for people, you get great places. In too many cases we have seen that new road capacity simply doesn’t lead to lasting improvements for road users, given induced demand almost always erodes time saving benefits.  Such schemes exacerbate negative externalities like poor air quality as well as increasing carbon emissions - at a time when it is critical to curb pollution as quickly as possible.  Given our constrained public finances such projects can also suck out investment for alternatives that potentially have far more benefits to offer. 

That’s why in our State of Nations report released last year, the Society made the following points:

• Transport projects which plausibly increase carbon emissions must be reconsidered, and funding for low and zero carbon transport projects increased and made longer term and more flexible.
• We made clear that it’s not inconceivable that we may return to building roads in the future in some locations, however we shouldn’t do that until low and zero carbon vehicles are the norm and if there is any credible alternative scheme available – particular if such a scheme can deliver wider benefits such as improved public health from more active travel etc.  We are not anti investment in roads – there is a crying need to maintain and modernise our highway network to both ensure longevity of one of the nation’s most valuable assets and facilitate greater uptake of sustainable modes. 
• TPS also has a long standing position in support of road user charging, which evidence suggests could support the existing network to cope without costly upgrades, in a way that is cost neutral against the current system.

I was pleased at how the article turned out, though (for the transport historians out there) I was saddened my mangling of Lewis Mumford’s famous 1955 conclusion that building new roads to tackle congestion was like loosening your belt to tackle obesity didn’t quite make the final cut.  As a succinct description of induced demand I’m not sure it can be beaten.

In this context it was interesting to see the DfT release their new guidance on completing business cases, with far greater focus in assessment to be put on the strategic case.  This seems very promising, but only time will tell if the era of the tyranny of a good BCR (too often made up of the accumulation of tiny time savings for motorists) is now finally starting to wane amongst decision makers to be replaced with a more nuanced position on which schemes should progress - taking into account the country’s wider strategic objectives.  TPS is still digesting this document, with meetings with the DfT alongside a number of our partner and supporting institutions to discuss in more detail due in September, and I hope to be able to say more about this in our next bulletin.

As always, the society welcomes feedback on our work and ideas for future issues of collective importance to the profession that we can shine a light on. Please contact us at info@tps.org.uk