The Role of Transport Planning

Civil engineering covers a wide range of activities relating to both public sector projects and private sector development schemes. Transport planning is one of the specialist areas that comes under the umbrella of civil engineering. The public perception of transport planning is that they don't really think about it as such, but transport planning does indeed play a vital role in our everyday lives as it impacts hugely on a regions economic well being as well as the quality of life experienced by its inhabitants . Think about it this way, carefully designed and well constructed transport links allows a region's populace to access jobs, education and health services easily and safely. Meanwhile, it also enables businesses to gain access to customers, suppliers and importantly the skilled employees they'll need to do the work. As a transport planning consultant, you may be thinking that I'm overdoing our role in the scheme of things and perhaps you're right! However, I'm hoping that you are starting to see how transport planning is an essential link between our transport system requirements and the needs of society at local, regional and national levels.

Transport planning consultants aim to improve the transport infrastructure, provide advice on policies as well as work on various transportation related projects. When the general public consider transport projects, it tends to be that they think of road networks. I guess this is because most of us tend to drive private vehicles more than we use public transport. However, the highways consultant will also get involved with railway networks, pedestrian systems, cycle routes and air travel. So, as well as having to think about the various transport systems, these days we also take into consideration climate change, the economic development objectives, travel behaviour and community needs.

As you can see, there's plenty of variety in transport planning work and may involve anything from working on anything from an access issue on a small parcel of land all the way to an international integrated infrastructure project. Accepting the complexity of any particular scheme, the transport planners’ responsibilities will typically include:

1. Identifying transport problems and providing potential solutions
2. Report on transport systems and present options and recommendations
3. Creating designs for new or improved transport infrastructures (including junctions, pedestrian areas, and car parking areas, etc
4. Resolving development site access issues
5. Carrying out a road safety audit
6. The design and interpretation of traffic surveys
7. Forecasting the impact of road improvements, policy changes and public transport schemes
8. Analysing and reporting on the benefits of various transportation strategies
9. Evaluating infrastructure needs to support planning applications for development projects
10. Analysing and reporting on environmental impact
11. Advise local authorities on their development plans
12. Participating in negotiations with planning authorities, local councillors, developers, architects, special interest groups and transport providers
13. Contributing to the bid writing process to gain funding for projects
14. Being an expert witness at planning appeals

Transport planners make a major contribution to developing and improving transport systems and really should be involved in infrastructure projects from the earliest stages to ensure that they are sustainable and provide the greatest benefit to the economy in the long-term.

If you would like to discuss this article or find out more about Modal Group UK services then please phone 015398 86015 or get in touch via the website at Traffic Consultants.