Ideals worth aiming for in 2023

HAPPY NEW YEAR to all our LTT readers. It is not so easy to see a positive and rewarding year ahead, however. Indeed, if we looked back to this time 12 months ago, we might have felt more positive then than we do now given our lack of knowledge about impending crises and unforeseen problems ahead, which will undoubtedly be familiar to us all, and only depressing to list again here. Let’s hope there are not too many similar shocks to come this year.

Nonetheless, as we head forward, it is probably worth reflecting a little on the past year, and on any lessons that can be learned, and in looking to the immediate future, see if our resolutions for 2023 are suitably realistic and resilient. We should consider if we can still achieve something worthwhile, notwithstanding specific practical challenges in managing the problematic economic and social landscape which we now have.

Beyond the tough and hard-wired circumstances that professionals in transport face, it might be fair to argue that there is a missing element. That is having a recognisable framework of thinking for those of good intent, a wish for things to change for the better, and to find common cause in having a clear focus on a positive way ahead. One which means more than just criticism of current activity, and issuing wish lists for the attention of other people — both fellow citizens and ‘those in authority’ to act upon.

It means setting out the core matters of guiding values, aspirations for the kind of society and world that we’d like to live in, and what constitute the principles needed to apply to achieve that. Some obvious objectives in the forefront of concern in the transport field must be those related to climate change and the bio-security of the planet. Defining actions to achieve them, experience suggests, is not so easy, given that the genuine application of words like sustainable, green and eco- friendly to both individual and corporate entities is regrettably rare.

That is not to say that some positive moves aren’t being made to re-define and deliver better new ways of addressing transport challenges. In this regard the newly announced Active Travel England professional development programme is investing £32.9m to provide the necessary training and personal development to create a national network of experts to work with communities, enhance high streets and make places ‘truly walkable and cyclable for everyone’. This surely represents the establishment of a new professional development pathway with the potential to provide many people with a rewarding and satisfying planet-friendly career.

It was an encouraging start of the year, and a small step in a good direction. As might be the idea of a School of Place, proposed by think-tank The Policy Exchange, and endorsed by Communities and Levelling up Secretary, Michael Gove, to “do all we can to ensure a new generation of built environment professionals are armed with the best skills and techniques possible to enable them to go out and build beautiful, sustainable places in which people and communities can thrive”. That would be welcome to many transport professionals, though it might be said that seeking a genuinely new way of approaching the design of more attractive and cohesive developments might not be best served by being associated so directly with the architecture profession as The Policy Exchange propose.

Indeed, it would be helpful and honest to acknowledge a pretty poor track record amongst the professions, and institutions more generally, of recognising what is actually desirable, sustainable, acceptable, and necessary, to head us off our current path to an unwelcome future. And then clearly set out and stick to relevant principles in finding better ways forward to suit the world we now live in, and its challenges. Rather than those practices we got too comfortably used to, and hoped to continue with regardless.

To achieve real change, we should not, and cannot be bound to legacy structures, organisations and language if we are to genuinely strike off in a new direction - and this doesn’t just apply to the political, business and general debate, but to the professional community even more so.

To have a real hope of progress during the year ahead, there are arguably a number of key contributory actions that need to be in place amongst the forward-thinking transport community:

• It must be time for some exemplary individual and organisational behaviour that sets a bar for others to recognise and build upon

• A difficult discussion is needed amongst the senior members of those professions impacting upon and responsible for transport which can jolt them away from self-importance and misplaced belief in everything they are doing being properly suited to the needs of both today and the future

• A dialogue is required to engage young people, in language that they understand, with mechanisms that recognise the possibility and the practicality of them dedicating a professional career to thoughtful, rewarding and sustainable personal activity.

Some efforts are being made in respect of the above, but they are patchy and partial at best, for example a recent WSP / Savanta ComRes report expresses concern at a lack of interest by the current generation of students in careers in engineering and environmental professional services, but fails to really define terms or set clear objectives about what needs to be tackled and achieved in the cause of sustainable development and decarbonisation.

The survey of nearly 4,000 school, college and university students aged 16-23 found that sectors including construction, utilities and transport rank poorly as those which appeal to the UK’s future workforce. It suggested a possible impending shortfall in jobs across sectors regarded as having an important role to play in delivering net zero.

However, the research very loosely describes working in construction as, by definition, playing a crucial role in decarbonising infrastructure and buildings, as well as the creation of new homes across the UK. Many, in contrast, argue that construction and new housing still have a long way to go to be so confident of their green credentials.

Worryingly, the figures record the students’ impressions of which sectors are most important in helping the UK reach its net zero emissions targets, with utilities (24%), transport (13%) and agriculture, forestry and fishing (11%) ranking highest. These are low numbers, and suggest that the coming generation of professionals are at a loss to see where the net zero achievements are to come from — if not in these areas, then where?

Not surprisingly, then, only half of students (50%) think their generation can have a high impact on tackling issues surrounding the environment and climate change, and less than two-in-five (39%) were confident in their understanding of the term ‘green jobs’ when asked.

This lack of understanding may, in part, be due to their school curriculum, with 75% of students agreeing that they would like, or would have liked, to learn more about climate, sustainability and environmental related topics at school. And no doubt about transport and its impact too, if they were properly aware of its significance.

Whilst Rachel Skinner, executive director at WSP, said: “For us to successfully tackle the many dimensions of the urgent climate challenge, we can’t carry on doing things the way we always have”, she did not suggest a particularly radical new direction.

“Having the right skills – in sufficient strength, breadth and depth – is essential if the UK is to seize the opportunity to boost economic growth and build new expertise through the climate transition”, Skinner continued.

The conflation of boosting economic growth, and solving the climate problem, might theoretically be feasible, but many would argue that the two aspirations are as yet often demonstrably incompatible, whilst still being pursued by infrastructure-driven thinking of Government and development bodies, and which has been a long-standing core activity of many consultants and contractors.

Small efforts have also been made within bodies like ICE and TPS, to steer in a new direction, but they can seem inadequate and trivial compared with the scale of new thinking and new approaches required to genuinely get things moving in suitably radical new directions when it comes to sustainable economic and social development.

This is clearly a difficult and multi-faceted conundrum — but no less important for that. Encouragingly, we are aware at LTT that others have been developing thinking on these issues, and we are keen to be part of such discussion about this area of thought development during the coming year.

As alluded to earlier, it is a fundamental topic that can and should be addressed whatever are the other specific challenges that may lie before us this year.

Peter Stonham is the Editorial Director of TAPAS Network

This article was first published in LTT magazine, LTT860, 10 January 2023.