Transport Planners Share Best Practice
There may not have been very much sunshine so far this summer, but innovation and best practice were certainly shining in Birmingham this week! We’ve just returned from the city having planned and managed the 11th Annual Transport Practitioners’ Meeting.
To kick-start the event, it was great to have CILT’s President, Jim Steer, himself a well-known transport planner, lead a plenary session of transport industry leaders in a discussion on transport planning priorities. This demonstrated a ‘can do’ spirit that helped set the tone for the rest of the meeting.
About one hundred transport planners and policy-makers from across the UK came to listen and contribute to discussions over two days. It was clear among attendees that, despite on-going economic problems and a fragile economic recovery, there remains a strong and positive energy amongst the transport planning community. There seems to be a growing appetite and determination to develop fresh thinking and ideas, to create a sense of place in local communities large and small, and to encourage policy makers to try out new ideas.
They say that ‘Adversity is the mother of invention.’ When it comes to transport, that certainly felt true at this year’s TPM where there were plenty of good ideas showcased and being trialled, despite local funding constraints. Case studies were presented on how bicycles can help deliver both people and goods more easily; the trialling of a car sharing scheme in Salisbury, the economic and wider benefits of HS2, innovative junction layouts in Coventry and south London, and new approaches to transport appraisals that could deliver big benefits for tourism and business in areas that really need it. On top of that, there were excellent case studies from the Midlands and Scotland too, including examples of research from Professor Bert van Wee, Delft University of Technology The Netherlands on Transport and Ethics. According to Prof Bertn’s research, a good policy should base on three criteria’s: effectiveness, efficiency and equity.
The other impression I took away was the number of young up-and-coming planners who are making really talented contributions, from designing Olympic transport plans to running cargo bike operations and showing the linkages between housing and transport. They have a real aspiration to try out new techniques and to develop innovative and high quality solutions to transport issues that really chime with the times.
Finally, the TPM included a special technical site visit to Birmingham’s City Centre Enterprise Zone. Forming part of the city’s ‘masterplan’ it includes big projects to transform the business and transport environment including a completely renovated New Street Station and Paradise Circus which will strengthen the Central Business District and arrival of HS2 in Birmingham to transform the City into an international hub.
These reflections are just vignettes of lively presentations and animated discussions in an interactive lecture-style session format from the two day meeting in Birmingham. People not only seemed to find the discussions really helpful, they also enjoyed meeting planners from other councils or consultancies and sharing experiences and perspectives.
We’ll be back to organise next year’s event, but if you weren’t at TPM this year, you can find out more about it in our full report on page 2 click here. Hope to see you there next year!