TRICS has been a long-established element of the technical transport assessment process providing a repository of useful data on site specific transport impacts. PJA has been at the forefront of using TRICS to provide informed transport assessments for many years and as contributors to the latest ‘Decide and Provide’ guidance, are well placed to offer advice.

The context within which land development related transport functions is evolving at a rapid rate. Covid-19, decarbonisation and a high pace of socio-demographic change all equal a new landscape for the assessment of development related transport impacts. All these effects suggest that the long-held view of “Predict and Provide” for the assessment and management of transport implications is now out of date.

To reflect this moving context the TRICS Consortium, who develop and operate TRICS, has been looking for ways to ensure the database, which sets out historic data, can move forwards in this ‘new’ world. In February 2021 TRICS issued a guidance document called the “Practical Implementation of the Decide and Provide Approach” in order to seek to provide a bridge to the new’ world.

If a form of development zoning is what emerges from the most recent proposed set of changes to the land use planning system in England, then a forward-looking view will become even more important. Fundamental choices about site layout and transport measures will be needed much earlier in the process, most likely at the local plan making.

Current thinking is to move to a transport planning approach based on providing each new place or development with a clear vision of what in transport terms it aspires to. The vision is designed to place the site in its spatial context. This could be driven by a range of factors:

• Local context – a small urban infill development would have a very different vision to a major SUE site for example.
• Transport connections – a site in an urban area on a main urban bus route or near a rail station would have a different transport perspective to a site in a village location. Equally, a large site on the urban fringe would have a different vision and outlook compared to mixed use city centre location.

From this thought process three core question emerge:

• What sort of place are we creating?
• What kind of activities do we need or desire to travel for?
• How will we provide for mobility?

This is at the centre of ‘Decide and Provide’ i.e. deciding on a preferred future and providing a development path best suited to achieving it can be represented by setting out a range of the potential trip generation outcomes.

The answers to these will dictate what will occur next. The aim suggested in the new guidance is to develop a number of scenarios that reflect the future transport implications for the development and to provide a range of transport solutions that meet the vision for the site.

TRICS still provides a dataset of comparator locations, these being used to make informed choices about a development’s transport characteristics and aims. Thus, the mechanics of the TRICS operation doesn’t change but the thought being given to the spatial context and application of the data harvested from the database is a fundamental change in approach.

The immediate outcome is likely to be a move towards menus of transport interventions as a basis for s106 agreements or for the spending of money from the proposed infrastructure levy. It will also challenge masterplanning activities to focus more on inter and intra site movement than currently seen. A further key challenge will be to persuade planning and highway officers at local authorities that a ‘worst case’ traffic assessment is not the ‘best’ or ‘most relevant’ case.

PJA are working to implement the new guidance through engagement with local planning and transport authorities. We are uniquely placed to ensure that the vision of each development is shaped to meet current and future transport requirements as our offer includes place making, urban and rural mobility and public transport development coupled with a strong track record securing effective transport solutions for development.

For more information, please contact [email protected]

Find the TRICS “Practical Implementation of the Decide and Provide Approach” here

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