Transport planners owe a debt to Richards’ skillful leadership

Martin Richards, the Transport Planning Society’s director of skills, has been instrumental in raising the profession’s status, helping establish a professional development scheme and the transport planning professional qualification. Geoff Dudley caught up with him just before his retirement

Geoff Dudley

26 June 2015

Martin Richards

For many years, transport planning as a profession lacked a qualification that could provide it with an identity in its own right. In this respect, it suffered from unfavourable comparisons with professions carrying chartered status. Since 2008, however, the gap has been filled by a transport planning professional (TPP) qualification, and an interrelated professional development scheme (PDS), which is a structured training scheme designed to equip younger transport planners with most of the...