City Science supported the creation of Transport for West Midlands’ fifth Local Transport Plan, by developing innovative tools to assess potential transport schemes.
Overview
City Science was commissioned, in partnership with Steer and Sweco, to support Transport for West Midlands (TfWM) in developing their fifth Local Transport Plan (LTP). In particular, City Science was responsible for developing robust and innovative tools to inform the selection of transport schemes to be included within the LTP. Our industry-leading knowledge of the methods underpinning the STB Carbon Assessment Playbook were essential for determining Quantified Carbon Reduction (QCR) compliant assessments of decarbonisation impacts. The success of our approach ensured TfWM’s LTP is aligned to their strategic priorities, as well as being transparent and evidence-led – thus facilitating wider stakeholder buy-in to the Plan.
Scope
TfWM were creating the fifth iteration of their LTP, outlining transport-related policies and implementation proposals. TfWM had previously determined strategic priorities within the area and assessments of generalised scheme types against those priorities. The consultancy partnership was commissioned to assist TfWM with producing specific plans for which schemes would be adopted. TfWM identified that there was an absence of tools to assess the quality and impact of potential schemes which aligned with Cit Science’s expertise in innovation. This would support prioritisation of schemes for inclusion within the LTP, and forecasting of the overall LTP impact – considering aspects such as decarbonisation, accessibility and journey time reliability.
It was essential to ensure that the scheme assessments were robust, transparent and evidence led. Furthermore, assumptions within the tools needed to be easily modifiable to allow updating as evidence changed and new evidence became available. TfWM is executive body for transport of the West Midlands Combined Authority. TfWM’s geographical remit covers 18 local authorities and as such engagement with these was vital to ensure that all TfWM’s stakeholders had buy-in to the tool-based prioritisation of schemes and subsequent LTP.
Our Response
Following our ‘client needs led’ ethos, we conducted a thorough review of TfWM’s strategic objectives, scheme information and stakeholder considerations. An iterative process was then used to ensure the work embodied the needs of all the stakeholders: by establishing a framework for assessing schemes, including detailing the key purposes and outputs of the tools., and how these outputs would be communicated to stakeholders during decision making. Our collaborative and flexible approach to this process ensured that the final framework aligned with the needs of TfWM and received wider stakeholder buy-in. With a framework in place we were able leverage our industry-leading experience of bespoke methods to support evidence-led decision making, delivering three powerful tools to be used sequentially in the scheme assessment process. These tools are outlined below.
Area Strategy Guidance Tool: Implements TfWM’s policy guidance to initially sift out proposals considered to be unsuitable owing to the scheme type, its location, or the people impacted.
Proposal Prioritisation Tool: Scores and ranks individual proposals against a range of metrics tied to TfWM’s goals, identifying the most promising proposals to package together. Using our expertise in transport appraisal methods, particularly in active and public transport schemes, we enhanced the assessment processes allowing the benefits of these schemes to be more accurately captured within the LTP.
Package Analysis Tool: This assesses the combined impacts of packaged proposals across different place types and population segments. Drawing on our broad expertise of transport modelling, we were able to integrate the outputs of TfWM’s local transport models into this tool. This ensured alignment between the tool and other transport assessment processes across the area. The strategic priorities of TfWM are shown in the header column, with a score then shown for each of TfWM’s constituent local authorities as well as TfWM as a whole. Collating core information in this way allows evidence-led, decision making by ensuring the results mapped to key stakeholder interests.
All three tools allowed for the users to track the final outcomes back to a particular scheme assessment by clearly displaying inputs, processes and outputs used in its calculation. We deemed this as an important facet in line with our passion for evidence-led and transparent decision making. It ensured that the LTP outcomes stood up to rigorous scrutiny as well as stakeholder buy-in. We supplemented interpretation of the tool outputs with interactive mapping leveraging our in-house flagship GIS software (Cadence 360), as shown below. By building on and using Cadence 360 we were able to cost effectively provide advanced geospatial analysis. We recognise that no expertise or tool is impactful unless stakeholders are properly engaged, enthused and onboarded and so following completion of the tool and scheme assessment drafts, we delivered interactive sessions to present scheme assessments and seek feedback on the results. This demonstrates a key industry leading success factor of our methods – combining evidence and data with a people-centered approach.
Cadence 360 Visualisation of the Accessibility Impacts of the LTP
Outcomes
Our unique blended experience of transport appraisal and data innovation meant that these tools formed the backbone of a scheme appraisal process that was consistent and rigorous enough to produce LTP evidence, and which was robust and aligned to TfWM’s strategic goals. It also ensured that the process was future-proof and flexible enough to ensure that the needs of TfWM and its stakeholders were met. This innovative, multi-partner, approach to LTP creation provided TfWM with an evidence-based, transparent, decision-making framework which supported the delivery of their key policy priorities around sustainable transport, decarbonisation, and community support.