With a set of principles, we can make transport planning a more respected profession

Transport planning is a very new profession. I know the Romans built roads (and speed humps!) and more recently Britain built canal, railway and motorway systems, but these were basically single purpose feats of engineering, however impressive. 

Transport planning as we know it is new and thoroughly modern, in that the answers to many of the complex problems we currently face are less clear-cut than how strong does a bridge have to be? Or even how fast can a legion march on Londinium?  

The answers we now produce may themselves be complex (though not always) and there are likely to be several alternative solutions. These may achieve some aims and not others, and look very different from one another. This adds to the existing high levels of uncertainty over the forecasts of future transport demand that underpin them.

Nor is it possible to simply combine elements from one solution with another; for example, making car travel quicker at the same time as setting up new bus services or cycle routes will clearly do nothing for mode shift.   

Back in the real worlds of consultancy and local government, no client wants to be told about uncertainty, they certainly don’t want to hear “if you do this, this might happen, or if you do that, something completely different might happen”.  

Too often, of course, transport planners are called in late in the day – not to create solutions but to justify someone else’s already committed scheme. We are not treated as though we have principles. 

Maybe it’s time we wrote some down. I don’t know about you, but I am pretty certain there is a better solution to delivering high-speed rail nationally and regional development north of Watford than the current HS2 project. And I’m very certain there is a better solution to national airports policy than sticking yet another runway at Heathrow, with no credible guarantees on surface links or environmental safeguards.  

Interestingly, in the seven years I’ve collated the results from the Transport Planning Society members’ survey, I see I am not alone. Liberated from the adversarial, 100 per cent right or 100 per cent wrong, “my expert is better than your expert” approach, which has dogged British decision-making for decades, transport professionals have a more nuanced but consistent view. 

Members always give walking the high level of importance it deserves. They look to public transport services and infrastructure being supported in the regions more than in London and the South East. For the latter areas they point to demand management (including for air travel) as the key. They also prioritise better local, urban and regional public transport links, without which regional development will be stymied and national networks cannot function.  

The Transport Planning Society has addressed the need to reflect what transport planners really think in decision-making before, in its Agenda for Change policy statement in 2015, and in the idea of independent commissioning for forecasting and modelling in 2016. 

As part of our new push to gain wider recognition for the profession we have developed a set of principles for transport planning, both in terms of outcomes and behaviour. What we have come up with embodies the idea that transport planners’ work should always be truly independent; questioning and open minded; honest about uncertainty; focused on people; and understandable by everyone. The aim is not only to increase understanding but also to increase the authority of the transport planning profession.  

The process has been interesting and exciting, mainly due to the additional feedback from our members across the UK. I have been struck by the common themes, especially frustration that the ‘best’ solution is often the least glamorous. It is very hard to get a client or politician enthusiastic about not building something (thus missing out on a major ribbon-cutting photo opportunity!). Improving a bus service, organising cycle training, or setting up a car club doesn’t have the same appeal. And why do people always shy away from revenue spending on transport (or public realm), instead choosing to build something and then walk away saying “job done” when it patently isn’t?  

Some participants actually said they have to try and slip in their best ideas to their recommendations rather than being able to say “it may not be the obvious thing to do but it will actually work and benefit people’s lives”.  

The dominance of pet schemes, special pleading, and what Sir Rod Eddington’s report for Government called ‘Grand Projets’ has left the public bewildered and believing that whoever is in charge of this mess should be ashamed. Perhaps that’s why I always have to take a deep breath and wait for the angry response (often parking related!) when I meet people socially and tell them I’m a transport planner.

While “How can we get our voice heard?” was a major issue for our members, other interesting theme was the need for empathy with the people affected by decisions. The need to listen, understand and acknowledge – this underpins the aim of always placing people at the centre of what we do, not the anonymous units in the models. People might get a new opportunity to find a job, or see their local street become a welcoming place rather than a hostile, polluted environment. We need to connect with them, not just consult on a scheme we know is going to get built anyway. 

The principles are part of the process of making clients and the public alike value our professional opinion rather than seeing us as guns for hire who follow the money. Without their respect the work that we do will never be properly respected.

There’s a lot of us out there with plenty of good ideas and who want to do a really good job – isn’t it about time we had the trust and space to do so?

The TPS transport planning principles are available at: https://tps.org.uk/tps-policy/the-principles-of-transport-planning

Transport Planning Day, which includes the people’s awards for transport planning, is on 13 November. More details are available here: 

https://tps.org.uk/society/planning-campaign 

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Keith Buchan is a transport planner with over 30 years experience in consultancy and local government. He was chair of the Transport Planning Society from 2011 to 2013, has been its director of skills since 2015 and has led the development of the TPS principles of transport planning.