Transport Planning Day highlights best practice in putting people at the heart of transport plans and the significant contribution transport planners make to people across the UK.

With this in mind, we asked our transport planning team: What inspires you professionally?

“When I walk down the High Street at Longbridge, where we designed much of the infrastructure as part of a multi-disciplinary and multi-company team, I see people shopping, working, having coffee with friends, having lunch in the park and having a kick about, and I think ‘I did this’. I remember the challenge we were given of turning a bad news story, the death of a British car manufacturing icon and 6000 people out of work, into a good news story of £1Bn investment to build a new heart and a new start for the community, and in the end getting a big result for the City of Birmingham. Creating good places for people is what transport planning and engineering is about, how can you not be inspired by that?”

Mark Nettleton, Joint Managing Director

“I am proud of my job because I am working for the cause I believe in – to make streets places again through sustainable transport planning.”

Justin Yim, Graduate Consultant, London office

“What inspires me professionally is being able to see the projects I’m involved in be brought to life in the real world and the knowing that I have contributed towards it in my own way”

Daniel Bent, Transport Modelling Associate, Birmingham office

“While all aspects of civil engineering profoundly affect people’s lives, transport and highways undoubtedly have the greatest human element and concomitant subjectivity, as context and ‘soft factors’ matter immensely, even if traditional practice doesn’t realise this. The public realm is the environment we probably spend the most time in after home and work, and people don’t just travel for boring mechanical reasons; even when they do, the design of the system can profoundly influence their wellbeing. The planning and design of public realm and the transport environment should reflect this.  I am therefore always motivated to provide the right solution in the right location, and design infrastructure and environments that meets the needs of people and not just vehicles and can inspire and enable people to lead happy, healthy and fulfilled lives. I am lucky to work at PJA where placemaking is a core value of the business, and I bring this outlook to both my transport planning and street design workstreams.”

Andrew Saffrey, Senior Consultant, Birmingham office

“As transport planners, we have a great opportunity to shape a better world in which everyone can travel safely whilst minimising their impacts on our planet. Through effective transport planning, we can deliver better, healthier, and more successful places whilst speeding up decarbonisation and improving quality of life for all.”

Dominik Stansby, Senior Consultant, Bristol office

“The opportunity to shape the future by working on projects that have a real impact. In particular, I am passionate about helping to create sustainable places and ensuring that sustainable transport is at the heart of future development is a key component of this.”

Daniel Bowditch, Graduate Consultant, Birmingham office

“A career in Transport planning appealed to me as a geography graduate due to the impacts of travel choice on the environment, society and people’s daily life. The opportunity to contribute to the design of new places to facilitate walking, cycling and public transport access, and to seek to understand and influence people’s travel choice really interests me. The variety and challenges offered by every project keeps the role interesting.”

Eliot King, Associate, Bristol office

“I’m inspired professionally by knowing that in our role as transport planners we are able to improve the well-being of others and provide opportunities for people to fulfil their potential, whether that be designing spaces that are accessible for all, getting planning permission for an employment led development or identifying improvement schemes for busy road corridors in city centres that ease congestion and improve air quality – the possibilities are endless!”

Jane Overton, Consultant, Birmingham office

“Transport planning is the key to unlocking new development. My role gives me the opportunity to shape new communities, from the design of new junctions to developing sustainable transport solutions.”

Joe Wooldridge, Senior Consultant, Birmingham office

“I get inspiration from making a difference to a project. This inspiration is driven by the game-changing people around me, and as a graduate I want to learn and apply professional skills to make a positive difference. In turn, I’m inspired to develop my career and reach my full potential.”

Kyle Conroy, Graduate Consultant, Bristol office

“When embarking on a career in transport planning, I didn’t really appreciate the influence you could have as a transport planner. Being able to influence the design of new developments and seeing in real life how the design choices you made can positively impact the people who live or work there really inspires me.”

Kay Nicholls, Principal Consultant, Birmingham office

“I enjoy shaping the environments where people live and work, and also seeing an end product to the hard work we do.”

Steve Bates, Associate, Birmingham office

“I choose to pursue a career in transport planning because of the importance it has in everyday life – it is regularly taken for granted that there is infrastructure in place for movement. Seeing particularly well-designed and poorly-designed transport solutions inspires me, to ensure that the work I do reaches its full potential.”

Lucy Smith, Consultant, Reading office

“What inspires me professionally is the knowledge that the work I do can influence the outcomes of development and shape the environment in which we all live.”

Beth Street, Consultant, Birmingham office

“Finding technical solutions to problems faced by a majority of people on a daily basis.”

Nick Woolley, Transport Modelling Consultant, Birmingham office

“I fell into the planning profession as a job vaguely related to my degree but meant that I didn’t have to move home after university! I did however always have an interest in Geography and the built environment and, having entered the profession, I particularly enjoy the breadth of issues that we deal with from detailed highway capacity modelling to designing better streets to encourage active travel. The emphasis on good quality design is very important for the future of the industry to encourage a shift away from the private car – streets are used by everyone every day so anything that can be done to improve the environment for all users not just drivers vital to accommodating future travel needs.”

Matthew Franklin, Associate Director, Reading office

“‘I look to have an influence on modern developments, and assist in the transport challenges we face in a growing, dynamic world. This includes the importance of sustainability to assure that developments benefit the future as much as they do the present.”

Matthew Wykes, Graduate Consultant, Birmingham office

Feeling inspired?

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