Best Practice and Innovation Shine  At PTRC’s 11th Annual Transport Practitioners’ Meeting

Martin Richards, OBE, presents the award for the Voorhees-Large Prize to Peter Jones of UCL on behalf of Susanna Bass, Transport for London.

Nick Richardson, Chairman of the Transport Planning Society, presents the ‘Transport Planner of the Year Award’ to Emma Osborn, Transport for London.

Nick Richardson presents the award for ‘Best Paper at the conference by a Young Practitioner’ to Steff Jones, Suffolk County Council and Stephanie Norris, Integrated Transport Planning Ltd.

Steve Agg, Chief Executive of the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport (CILT) presents Richard Armitage, Managing Director, Transport Consultancy Limited and Chairman of the TAS Partnership with the PTRC Lifetime Achievement Award.

John Dales, Director, Urban Movement, presents winners Lynette Kelly and Mike Waters, Coventry City Council, with the 2013 Award for Urban Transport Design.

Transport planning best practice from the Midlands, Scotland, the Netherlands and Abu Dhabi all featured strongly in this year’s lively and well-attended Transport Practitioners’ Meeting.  

Held in Birmingham from 2nd to 3rd July, this year’s TPM attracted nearly 100 transport planners and policy-makers from around the UK.  Delegates represented a wide range of organisations from local authorities and county councils to planning consultancies.  

Delegates came to “the heart of England” to listen to leading transport planning and policy experts and to participate in discussions in interactive presentations. This enabled them to ‘tailor’ their conference to suit their particular needs.  Topics covered included: the latest trends in appraisal assessments, the impact of HS2, building on the Olympic transport legacy, best practice in provision for pedestrians and cyclists, and the benefits to tourism of improved transport links.  

A busy two-day event sponsored by Streetwise, was packed with content-rich plenary and special breakout sessions. 
This year’s meeting was opened by Steve Agg, Chief Executive of the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport.  The plenary session was chaired by leading transport planner Jim Steer,  who led a discussion with David Middleton, Chief Executive of Transport Scotland, Bert van Wee of Delft University of Technology, and Maria-Pilar Machancoses, Economic Development Manager from Centro. 

The meeting was aimed at transport planners, engineers, urban transport designers, managers and anyone involved in strategy development and delivery of transport services from the public and private sectors. It is designed to provide a platform for sharing best practice in order to develop the profession and an opportunity for extensive networking and sharing of ideas and experiences. The TPM also encourages the involvement of younger members of the profession as a way of enhancing their career development.

Nick Richardson, Chairman of PTRC and the Transport Planning Society, heralded the success of the meeting.  He said:  “The Transport Practitioners’ Meeting (TPM) has matured into the UK and Ireland's industry leading annual meeting place for highways, traffic and transport practitioners. The conference is focused on the issues of universal importance to the transport industry.  Its multi-streamed format allows participants access to the papers and workshops on a huge range of topics, from appraisal and funding, to smarter choices, transport planning, policy and infrastructure development.”

Technical visit

There was also a special technical site visit to Birmingham’s City Centre Enterprise Zone which includes big projects to transform the business and transport environment including a completely renovated New Street Station, the Grand Central shopping centre, and Paradise Circus which will strengthen the central business district. The improvements form part of Birmingham’s ‘masterplan’ with the establishment of six enterprise zones across the city to drive economic growth. Delegates also visited the site of the arrival of HS2 station in Birmingham.

TPM Award Winners

The two day event also included the prestigious PTRC 2013 Transport Practitioners’ Meeting Awards which recognised top transport planners across the UK for their work in proposing, planning and developing schemes that improve local transport provision, enhance the built environment, or contribute to local socio-economic well-being. 

The PTRC Lifetime Achievement Award was given to Richard Armitage CMILT, Managing Director of the Richard Armitage Transport Consultancy and Chairman of the TAS Partnership, for his work in developing local community transport schemes since the 1970s, as well as what the judging panel called his “infectious enthusiasm” for good local transport planning and provision.  

The 2013 Award for Urban Transport Design, sponsored by Urban Movement, was given to Coventry City Council for their Gosford Road Improvement Scheme which has hugely enhanced the flow of pedestrians and cyclists in a busy part of the city centre, as well as creating a much stronger sense of place at a junction that previously had poor provision for non-motorists.

The award for Best Paper at the Conference for Demonstrating Sustainable Transport Solutions  was given to Tim Middleton and Keturah Watts of Kent County Council for their paper: ‘Saving Lives through healthier homes: putting location, links and layout for new residential developments at the heart of the health agenda’.

Martin Richards OBE, presented the award for the Voorhees-Large Prize, in memory of Brian Large, a former director of planning consultancy MVA and one of the founding fathers of transport modelling.  This year’s award was won by Susanna Bass, who is a Traffic Control Engineer at Transport for London, for the excellence of her Master’s degree at Imperial College and UCL in London in 2012.   

Nick Richardson, Chairman of the Transport Planning Society (TPS) presented two awards sponsored by TPS. The first was given to Emma Osborne, Principal, Surface Transport Managing Director’s Office at Transport for London, who won the Transport Planner of the Year Award for her tireless work to deliver the vital Central London Zone travel plan for the London 2012 Olympics.

Nick also presented the award for ‘Best Paper at the Conference by a Young Practitioner’ which was won jointly by Steff Jones, Suffolk County Council and Stephanie Norris, Integrated Transport Planning Ltd.  

Nick Richardson, who is also Chairman of PTRC, commented: “These awards recognise and reflect the excellent work that is being done by transport planners to improve local transport and create places for people in towns, cities and rural areas across the country.  Despite the difficult economic times, planners are showing flair and ingenuity to make a difference for local communities.”

The Awards Ceremony was held at the exquisite Botanical Gardens in Birmingham.

Steve Agg welcomes an audience of top Transport Planners to the 11th annual Transport Practitioner's Meeting.	Maria-Pilar Machancoses, Centro’s Economic Development Manager revealed that, while national infrastructure schemes are still being funded and gain the headlines, it is investment in local transport infrastructure that is key to economic growth.	David Middleton, TransportScotland’s Chief Executive emphasised that, whatever the result of the 2014independence vote, transport is central to Scotland’s future.