Paul Basham Associates thoroughly enjoyed the 27th Annual TRICS User Meeting on Tuesday, with a number of interesting topics discussed by the expert panel and the running theme of ‘New Approaches, New Developments and New Innovations’.
Informative sessions were led on the knowledge base of TRICS and guidance for good practice, as well as an intriguing look at how AI could be used in Transport Planning. There were also talks from Transport for London on their new TA guidance and TRICS Managing Director Ian Coles on TRICS’ research project into servicing at residential apartments and construction traffic, with the findings set to be published soon.
The biggest takeaway was a session on how Decide and Provide works with TRICS. In this session the vision-led planning paradigm was discussed, alongside the need to decide on a preferred future and then provide development at the best suited location to achieve this. One of the challenges highlighted was the way in which many government authorities have expressed that they are waiting for the vision-led approach to be properly set out in their respective Local Transport Plan policy documents prior to really pushing for this. The case study of land west of Chichester in West Sussex was used, describing how a monitoring and mitigation plan was used alongside the Section 106 obligations to support a Decide and Provide approach. It was also revealed that TRICS 8 will feature a Time Series Analysis Module which will allow users to view output tables of how trip data changes over time at surveyed sites and provide a simple indication of overall trip generation trends over time. This is due to be online by September 2025 and should prove a useful tool in helping steer the conversation around Decide and Provide based on tangible evidence.
All in all, a very enjoyable and informative day which provided thought-provoking discussion on the future of Transport Planning and the role that TRICS is set to play in that.
