Why Transport Planning matters
Coming from a densely-populated city like Kuala Lumpur, I always took traffic congestion as the status quo. Back home, we once worked out that by the time my dad was old enough to retire, he would have spent around 2.5 years of his life stuck in traffic! Our population was increasing exponentially, and a city which was only a settlement 100 years ago struggled to keep up with this rapid growth.
It wasn’t until I moved to the other side of the world that I realised these things take time, foresight and intricate planning. That’s where Transport Planners come in to play…
The industry is having to innovate and adapt faster than ever to accommodate political, socio-economical, technological and environmental factors.
There is so much I have had the privilege to work on with Curtins. These range from developments focused on regenerating a city centre to increase economic pull and create business opportunities, rural developments creating high-quality homes that link people to their everyday facilities, or standalone regeneration of a building to accommodate a new and unique piece of history.
…All these projects share a common goal, which is to deliver benefits in the most sustainable manner possible.
To achieve this, Transport Planners have a responsibility to collaborate with the public, which is one of the many aspects of my job that’s so enjoyable: listening to the needs of people and providing the most workable solutions.
In a sense, Transport Planning does more than bring people from one place to another in the most efficient manner. It also adds value to their everyday lives, giving them the most financially agreeable, socially reliable, and environmentally sustainable choices in their travel. If we get it right, we give people back their most valuable asset – their time – so they can spend it doing much more meaningful things.
I’m a qualified Mechanical Engineer and stumbled into Transport Planning completely by accident. But what’s kept me in this field is making sure the people of tomorrow (i.e. the end-users of the transport systems and infrastructure we build today) have flexibility and freedom of choice in their methods and opportunities for daily travel in the future.
The only guarantee in life is that things change. That is why it is vital to get Transport Planning right in everything we do. We must uphold this shared responsibility to consistently and reliably deliver quality spaces, neighbourhoods and workplaces to cater for the increased complexity in everyday life… all while making sure no one else has to spend 2.5 years of their lives in traffic!