Happy Holidays from PTRC

I think we can all agree that 2018 has been a whirlwind of a year. Can you believe the Olympics were in this calendar year? It blows my mind. Can you also believe that we were talking about football coming home only 150 days ago? From crazy weather to an even crazier news cycle, 2018 was definitely something to write home about.

The 17th Annual Transport Practitioners’ Meeting (TPM) will take place on the 10th – 11th of July 2019 in historic Oxford. The deadline for submission of abstracts is 25 January 2019. TPM is the annual meeting place for all transport planners, placemakers, highway engineers and urban transport designers. TPM brings the wider transport and built environment community together for two days of world class networking, idea sharing and lively debate.  

Last month, DfT published a consultation on priorities for developing our appraisal and modelling guidance (WebTAG). Our appraisal framework aims to provide as full a view as possible about the wide range of impacts transport has on the economy, environment and society. 

The London Plan is the Mayor’s primary mechanism through which to coordinate London’s evolution and development over a 20-25 year period.  A full review of the 2016 London Plan was commissioned shortly after the election of Mayor Sadiq Khan. Following this review, the latest London Plan was published in draft in November 2017. This reflects the Mayor’s priorities for London over the period up to 2041. Following the recent public consultation, the Plan will be examined in the Autumn and published a year later. Given the Mayor’s transport remit, it is no...

Transport has caught the public imagination recently with talk of driverless cars, widespread adoption of electric vehicles, delivery drones and all manner of applied technology alongside some less desirable but more predictable transport headlines relating to railway woes and traffic congestion.  Some or all of these new ideas will add to the mix of options we are familiar with but there is no consensus on what will definitely happen.  There is a heightened expectation that our means of travel will change but there is no certainty that this will be achieved as quickly...

A lot has changed in the last decade. And nowhere is this more apparent than in urban transport. From rapid bus passenger decline to the huge growth in private hire vehicles, dramatic shifts are changing the face of our cities.

Our recent report Number crunch reveals some of these trends. So what’s going on, and how might this affect the future of urban transport? 

Firstly, there have been clear winners and losers. 

The Transport Practitioners' Meeting (TPM) is the annual meeting place for all transport planners, modellers, placemakers, highway engineers and urban transport designers. TPM brings the transport and built environment community together for two days of world class networking, idea sharing and lively debate.

Air-quality remains very much at the top of the political agenda in the UK. Whilst everybody has a duty to minimise emissions to air the key stakeholders responsible for managing local air-quality are local and highway authorities.  In 2017 the Joint Air-Quality Unit (an amalgamation of practitioners from DEFRA and the DfT) issued a National Plan to deal nitrogen dioxide pollution. The plan coincided with legal challenges principally by Clientearth who are pressing all levels of government to take assertive action in resolving air-quality to be within nationally based air quality...

The festive season is my favourite time of year; it is even more of a delight to live in London as the lights turn on, the Christmas trees go up and the mulled wine is warmed. The weather isn’t too bad either if you ask me, better than back home in Calgary with thirty below and three feet of snow! And don’t forget, 15 December is Christmas Jumper Day, a yearly tradition I now cherish since moving here. I have definitely lined up the world’s best/worst ugly Christmas jumper for the festivities, please drop me a line if you would like to see it in all its terrible glory.

TPM is the annual meeting place for all transport planners, placemakers, highway engineers and urban transport designers. TPM brings the wider transport and built environment community together for two days of world class networking, idea sharing and lively debate.