We are Possible

Contact: Leo Murray
Region: UK Various
Location: London, Leeds, Birmingham, York, Bristol, Bath
Email: leo@wearepossible.org
Sector: Other
Web: https://www.wearepossible.org/careers
Category: Transport planning
Closes: 15 Mar 2021
Salary: Unspecified
More info:

Transport Planner: Car Free Cities

Job Description

The basics:

  • Salary: £27,623 pro rata for a new graduate - £35,426 for a candidate with 4-5y professional experience (includes London weighting).
  • Contract:20 months (with possibility of extension), 0.8-1 FTE (4 to 5 days per week). Exact working hours negotiable. Unfortunately applications for job sharing this role cannot be considered.
  • Location: Our physical office is in London but you can be based anywhere within easy reach of London, Leeds, Birmingham, Bristol, York or Bath provided you are able to work from home. You will be required to travel occasionally between these cities for events and site visits (expenses paid). You must have the right to work in the UK. Unfortunately we’re not able to support work visa applications.
  • Ideal starting date: 21st April, 2021, or soon after
  • Application process: application form and then two interview rounds (more on this below), interviews expected to be held between 22nd and 30th March.
  • Closing date:9am GMT, 15th March 2021
  • Contact for questions: leo@wearepossible.org

Possible is committed to providing equal opportunities for all applicants regardless of their background. We value diversity whilst also acknowledging that people from certain backgrounds are underrepresented in our organisation. We are keen to correct this, so particularly encourage applications from Black, Asian and minority ethnic people; people who identify as disabled; people who identify as LGBTQIA+ communities; people who have experienced mental health challenges and people who identify as working class (or have done in the past).

About the role

At a glance

This specialist transport planning role will support Possible’s Car Free Cities campaign team to kickstart the process of making private cars obsolete in our cities.

You will provide technical expertise to carry out related research including citizen science studies with our academic partners, and work with communities to co-design proposals for streetscape changes that reallocate road space in our cities away from private cars and give it back to people and nature, enhancing the public realm and facilitating a societal shift towards active and sustainable travel.

Your day to day will involve working closely with the Car Free Cities team in their efforts to engage communities, policy makers and other stakeholders to develop plans to erode urban motor traffic dominance, ensuring our work is underpinned by the best available evidence.

Full description

Possible have secured funding to campaign to reduce private car dominance in cities, showing how achieving the big reductions in motor traffic needed to meet climate change targets will also dramatically improve health outcomes and quality of life for people living in cities, particularly in the most polluted areas.

We are putting together a crack team to help make change happen in four cities in the UK, and Paris, and New York. Your number one job will be to work with colleagues and partners to develop proposals for changes at the city, local, neighbourhood and street levels which can help people to transcend car dependency and meet their mobility needs in ways that are less socially and environmentally damaging.

This role will be central to ensuring that all of our work in this space is underpinned by a robust evidence base. As well as leading the design process for bottom-up proposals for streetscape interventions to reduce traffic locally, you will also have the opportunity to ‘dream big’ with high level concepts for car-free alternative visions for iconic street scenes in our target cities.

This post will also play a pivotal role in developing and delivering supporting research with our academic and consultancy partners, from desk-based projects analysing local transport data and related policy frameworks, to deep-dive ‘optioneering’ with a prospective car-free community in London, household surveys on existing local traffic management measures, equity analysis on how the car free agenda interacts with those with complex mobility needs, and citizen-science traffic surveys using low cost monitors.

Key responsibilities

Research

  • Technical lead on our citizen science projects. Be the point person and project manager for our work with academic and consultancy partners to conduct citizen science transport projects, including: neighbourhood traffic surveys with University of West of England and Transport Mobility Leuven; household surveys on local traffic management, ‘deep optioneering’ with a prospective car free community in London, and an equity analysis to determine how car free cities can increase mobility for currently marginalised groups, with the University of Westminster’s Active Travel Academy.
  • Contribute to the research working group with the director of innovation, head of Car Free Cities, dataviz designer, freelance researchers and academic partners at Active Travel Academy to develop briefs and scopes for our car-free programmes’ research outputs, as well as taking an active role in delivering transport research as required.
  • Local transport analysesas required, from data on traffic and congestion flows, mode share and access to public transport, to policy analyses such as reviewing local authority Local Cycling and Walking Investment Plans and city and regional transport decarbonisation plans.

Design

  • Community co-design of compelling proposals, backed by evidence, for local traffic reduction measures, including residential streetscape changes like strategic placement of parklets, modal filters and cycle storage, as well as wider neighbourhood enhancements like proposals for new bus lanes or bus gates, protected cycleways and pedestrianisation. Our community campaigners will lead engagement, underpinned by your expert guidance.
  • Future streetscape visualisations: work with photographers, the car free cities campaign team and our architectural visualiser to produce appealing, media-friendly visualisations of our streetscape proposals across all of the cities we are working in, including Paris and New York.
  • Transport and urban planning data visualisations: work with director of innovation, the car free cities campaign team, our academic partners and our dataviz designer to spec and produce engaging graphic campaign communication assets on key metrics such as congestion, air pollution, household car ownership, access to green space etc.
  • Develop speculative high level car free proposals for iconic sites in any of the cities we are working in, for example Hammersmith Bridge in West London.

Campaigning

  • Provide expert support for the head of Car Free Cities and our community organisers working in Leeds, London, Birmingham and Bristol on a case by case basis. This could entail a range of activities including e.g. attending meetings with councillors and council officers, or presenting analysis on background levels of congestion etc.
  • Strategic input to help maximise impact on our core programme objectives of reducing motor traffic dominance in our cities, helping communities and individuals to transcend car dependency, and advancing a near to medium term vision of our cities where private car ownership is a thing of the past.

Organisational involvement

  • Attend regular online meetings with the CFC team and the wider Possible team, as well as monthly line management meetings.
  • Participate in culture, strategy, campaign and project development and reviews.
  • Contribute proactively to improve and enhance Possible’s working practices with respect to inclusion and diversity.
  • Participate actively in maintaining a positive, supportive organisational culture at Possible

About you:

To make our shortlist, you’ll need to have:

  • An appropriate qualification in transport planning, urban design, town/city planning, or related field; OR equivalent professional experience
  • Experience and confidence in handling transport datasets and spreadsheets
  • Strong portfolio of transport planning projects (student, professional or voluntary / advocacy sector)
  • One (or both) of EITHER
    • Familiarity with traffic modelling software packages and ability to process and work with traffic flow and congestion data, , including GIS data (e.g. QGIS)

OR

  • AutoCAD skills to professional standard
  • Willingness to develop either basic AutoCAD or basic traffic modelling and GIS skills as required (during work hours)
  • Working knowledge of climate and transport issues, including active travel and public transport
  • Masters level research skills
  • Ability to take initiative and work independently, as well as part of a team
  • Commitment to Possible’s positive approach to climate campaigning and passionate about achieving climate justice
  • Commitment to societal shift away from private car use

If wouldn’t hurt if you had some of this too (if you’re worried about applying because you don’t, you can get in touch):

  • Professional experience in transport or town planning or urban design
  • Local knowledge of transport networks in London, Leeds, York, Birmingham, Bristol or Bath
  • Experience working with API data feeds
  • Experience of working with UK and international transport datasets
  • Previous experience with citizen science/participatory planning projects
  • Track record of climate action outside of work

About Possible

Here at Possible, we have a vision for a low carbon Britain that has been built by and belongs to everybody.

To get there, we dream up projects, build tools and spread success stories to make sure everyone has the help and inspiration they need to play a role in tackling climate change. Our work cuts carbon, but because we work on cultural as well as technical levels, we get people talking about climate change action too. We want our projects to take on the world, so it is always about more than just a solar panel here, or an LED there - it’s about groups of people working together to change the world.

Our values:

Inclusivity, trust and respect, creativity, shared ambition, positivity, caring and kindness, integrity, and openness.

These aren’t just buzzwords to make us feel warm and fuzzy, they are what guide our actions and our organisational culture. Away-days help to keep these values alive and we work together to keep our team as supported, empowered and cared for as possible. We’re run by a team of directors rather than one single CEO, and we’re committed to reducing hierarchy wherever possible.

We are committed to supporting people with marginalised identities who are under-represented in our organisation. If you have any questions about the job or how we do things at Possible before you apply, email leo@wearepossible.org and we can arrange a phone call.

Workplace benefits include:

  • 25 days paid holiday pro rata (+ bank holidays and three days at Christmas)
  • Flexible working
  • Paid volunteer leave
  • Bike to work scheme
  • Use of organisation e-cargo bike, if London based
  • Paid journey days for low carbon holiday travel
  • Childcare vouchers
  • Good maternity and paternity leave
  • Employer pension contribution
  • Access to complementary Headspace account (mindfulness and meditation app)
  • Access to our workplace employee assistance programme, including free counselling sessions and financial advice

How to apply, and what comes next

Everything you need to apply is in this application form.

Fill it in and return it to jobs@wearepossible.orgno later than 9am GMT, 15th March 2021. Please put “Transport Planner” in your email subject line.

We will hold two rounds of interviews. Each interview will happen online with two interviewers from the Possible staff team and the Active Travel Academy, and last between 60-90 minutes, including a short task.  For candidates invited to second round interviews there will also be an opportunity to speak informally with two Possible staff members not involved in the appointment process to ask any questions about our workplace, and get a feel for our organisational culture.

We expect to hold first round interviews on the22nd, 23rd, 24th & 25th March. We expect to hold second round interviews on 29th & 30th March. If you know you are not able to make any of these dates, please let us know in the appropriate section in the application form.

Please tell us if you have access needs for the recruitment process and we will try and meet your needs.

We’d also appreciate it if you could complete an equal opportunities monitoring form. This will be stored separately to your application and is purely to help Possible assess and improve our recruitment processes.

We are aware that highly capable prospective candidates sometimes rule themselves out of applying for roles because they're worried they don't quite fit all the requirements, or because they've gained their experience in an unconventional setting (eg. through voluntary work or in a completely different sector). So if you’re not sure if you're quite right for the job, please do get in touch with leo@wearepossible.org to chat a bit more about what the role would involve and what we’re looking for.

How to Apply

How to apply, and what comes next

Everything you need to apply is in this application form.

Fill it in and return it to jobs@wearepossible.orgno later than 9am GMT, 15th March 2021. Please put “Transport Planner” in your email subject line.

We will hold two rounds of interviews. Each interview will happen online with two interviewers from the Possible staff team and the Active Travel Academy, and last between 60-90 minutes, including a short task.  For candidates invited to second round interviews there will also be an opportunity to speak informally with two Possible staff members not involved in the appointment process to ask any questions about our workplace, and get a feel for our organisational culture.

We expect to hold first round interviews on the22nd, 23rd, 24th & 25th March. We expect to hold second round interviews on 29th & 30th March. If you know you are not able to make any of these dates, please let us know in the appropriate section in the application form.

Please tell us if you have access needs for the recruitment process and we will try and meet your needs.

We’d also appreciate it if you could complete an equal opportunities monitoring form. This will be stored separately to your application and is purely to help Possible assess and improve our recruitment processes.

We are aware that highly capable prospective candidates sometimes rule themselves out of applying for roles because they're worried they don't quite fit all the requirements, or because they've gained their experience in an unconventional setting (eg. through voluntary work or in a completely different sector). So if you’re not sure if you're quite right for the job, please do get in touch with leo@wearepossible.orgto chat a bit more about what the role would involve and what we’re looking for.

 
 
 
 

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