Transport Planning Consultants
We work proactively with our clients to bring in-depth knowledge of transport planning policy and guidance, provide technical, design and engineering advice and solutions on a wide range of development planning and transport engineering projects.
We have a proven track record of working well with our customers and delivering the desired outcome.
Our experienced transport team, led by Louise Smith, are able to advise on all aspects of Transport Assessments, Transport Statements and Travel Plans for new development, change of use and reserved matters applications at the pre-planning, planning and post-planning stages.
We work on residential, education and commercial schemes.
We can undertake quality work on highway design, junction engineering, scheme appraisal, vehicle swept path analysis as well as reporting, survey analysis, sustainable transport access, parking surveys and Travel Plans.
We can assist you with all your Transport Planning, Highways Planning and Scheme Design requirements including Road Safety Audit, Section 278/38, PERS Audits, accessibility analysis, trip generation analysis, junction engineering, waste and resource management design and providing Delivery and Servicing Plans.
Our Expertise
- Transport Assessments & Statements
- Highways and traffic design and engineering
- Environmental Impact Assessments
- Travel Plans and sustainability assessment
- Traffic Modelling, micro-simulation and traffic/ pedestrian behavioural science research
- Sustainable Modes of Transport
- Road Safety Audits and other highways safety assessment
Transport Planning Services
Our transport consultants produce Transport Statements, Transport Assessments, Travel Plans, Delivery and Servicing Plans and Parking Management Plans for a range of planning applications.
We also coordinate and manage traffic surveys and parking surveys. Our transport planning services include:
Transport and Development Planning
Provision of Transport Assessments/Statements, Travel Plans, Delivery & Servicing Plans and Construction & Logistics Plans to support planning applications for the redevelopment of sites.
Traffic Engineering and Modelling
Capability to design new highway layouts for a mixture of signal controlled, priority and roundabout junctions and model their capacity using tools such as Arcady, Picady and Linsig.
Road safety audits can be commissioned where required, with recommendations leading to improved highway layouts.
Travel Plans
Ability to deliver high-quality travel plans implementing sustainable travel patterns for various scheme elements – residential, school, health sector and workplace. This focuses on reducing the need to travel and the provision of high-quality alternatives to the car.
Our Transport Assessments and Travel Plans can incorporate PERS Audits to assess detailed conditions of pedestrian and cycle routes.
Traffic Surveys
Management and coordination of traffic and parking observation surveys along with result analysis.
Louise Smith, the leader of our Transport team, previously project managed the late TRAVL trip generation database and survey programme for London across six years, the surveys of which have since been incorporated into the TRICS software. She has also in her previous roles, been the Travel Plan Coordinator for approximately eight residential developments in London, the South-East and other parts of the UK.
Highways Infrastructure & Drainage
AVAL provides a range of services covering all aspects of engineering and environmental consultancy services for Civil Infrastructure. As part of this, our dedicated Highways Team can provide expert advice on a range of projects and planning applications for clients from a range of backgrounds.
We can assist you with all your highways and road access design and drawing needs. From the start of the project feasibility to detailed design stage we can provide you with full highways civil infrastructure consultancy support.
Our highways work is complemented by our in-house environmental and civil engineering colleagues who can assist with a number of other civil and environmental considerations such as flood risk, air quality, noise, contaminated land, daylight and lighting strategy, odour, vibration and design and access strategy.
Our Team
Louise Smith, our Principal Transport Planner and the Transport Team Leader has over fifteen years’ experience in transport planning/ engineering and project management for both the public and private sectors preparing Transport Assessments, Travel Plans, Delivery & Servicing Plans, Accessibility Analysis, Masterplanning & Regeneration, Traffic Engineering and Traffic Surveys for a number of London and South-East based clients.
With a strong understanding of the UK planning processes, particularly that of London and the South-East, Louise can help developments achieve planning consent through the production of quality Transport Assessments and Travel Plans. She can also provide transport advice and solutions for proposed new developments where required.
Junction Modelling and Design Capability
We can input geometrical data of T-Junctions and roundabouts, input visibility data and if required model a dedicated turn in the bay on the major road. We can also model the separated flow of traffic and blockage of traffic due to vehicle turning from the major road onto a minor road.
We use TRL software packages such as ARCADY, PICADY and OSCADY to produce our junction assessment reports. Our typical approach with some working screenshots is presented below from the TRL software packages.
We input traffic flow as O-D (Origin-Destination Data) in terms of vehicles per hour (veh/hr) or PCU (Passenger Car Units) per hour (PCU/hr). Percentage of Heavy Vehicle can also be modelled as part of the input of traffic flow.
We can also model under different demands depending on the situation and conditions of the model.
With those data, we are able to see the flow of traffic on each arm of the road and also calculate the length of time a vehicle is stationary and how many vehicles on average during the whole model are queuing up at each arm. Finally, it gives an indication of how good the lane usage and compare the flow to the capacity of the junction/arm.
We can also simulate how vehicles move to different parts of the junction with the ‘Lane Simulation’ feature of the software. Part of the simulation allows us to add in the motion of the vehicles if there are dedicated lanes for any direction. The simulation also allows us to add any limits in between the arms to model the distance between the linked arms.
Finally, the Junctions software allows us to link different multiple roundabouts, multiple T-Junctions or a mix of roundabouts and T-Junctions at the same time. The ‘Lane Simulation’ allows us to visualise the movement of vehicles and spot any bottlenecks and can allows us to add any road blocks such as construction vehicles or roadworks, or can also be used to model constrained flow of traffic on any side of each arm. +
Below is an example multi-link junction layout of 2 roundabouts and 2 T-Junctions. As can be seen below, the design of the junction link prevents the vehicles to flow smoothly and eventually the flow of the vehicles blocks the entire junction link.
Summary of our Transport Planning Services
- Transport Assessment (TA) and Transport Statement (TS)
- Traffic assessments including traffic surveys
- Delivery and servicing management plan
- Traffic demand forecasting
- Travel plans and parking studies
- Site/access feasibility studies
- Regeneration and development framework
- Junction capacity assessments
- Transport modelling
- Public transport, pedestrian and cycle strategies
- Accident data analyses
- Swept path analysis (AutoCAD vehicle tracking)
Highways Design Services
Our experts have a track record in successfully delivering quality projects to our private and public sector clients and can offer services in the following areas:
- Access Appraisal
- Site Access Design
- Vehicle Swept path analysis
- Temporary Traffic Management Plans
- Outline Construction and cost estimates for highway works
- Council consultations
- Public consultationDesign and Access Statement
- Stage 1 Road Safety Audits and designer responses
- Section 278/38
- Planning applications (review and production)
- Expert Witness
- Scoping exercise with highway authority
- Value engineering appraisals and option design
- Topographical Surveys, GPR Utility Surveys and C2 enquiries, CCTV and 85th percentile speed surveys
- Preliminary highway design according with design for deliveries, DMRBs, MFS1/2 and all required standards for adoption
- Project Management, financial risk, and commercial management
Should you require further details of our services or would like to discuss your requirements with a member of our team, we would be pleased to hear from you.
Our Approach
We help our clients to secure planning permission by providing the most relevant and cost-effective project-specific solution for transport planning and access measures to satisfy the planning requirement. Whatever your transport statement requirements are, our experienced transport consultants can work with you and your project team to satisfy all planning requirements.
When an assessment is needed?
Department for Transport (DfT) Guidance on Transport Statement and Assessment provides typical thresholds below which a formal assessment may not be needed, and above which the preparation of a formal assessment would be appropriate. If an assessment is required, there are two levels:
- Transport Statement (TS): development that has relatively small
transport implications. - Transport Assessment (TA): development that has significant
transport implications
The key issues to be addressed during any pre-application consultations for a transport statement include the following:
- Planning policy context of a development proposal;
- Catchments or study area for the proposed development;
- Assessment years – the year of opening and horizon year(s);
- Assessment of public transport capacity, walking/cycling capacity and the road network capacity;
- Person trip generation and trip distribution methodologies and/or assumptions;
- Measures to promote sustainable travel; and
- Mitigation measures (where applicable) – scope and implementation strategy.
Principals of a Transport Statement and Assessment
In preparing a transport assessment the following considerations will be relevant:
- Encouraging environmental sustainability
- Reducing the need to travel, especially by car
- Tackling the environmental impact of travel
- The accessibility of the location
- Other measures which may assist in influencing travel behaviour (ITB)
- Managing the existing network
- Making the best possible use of existing transport infrastructure
- Managing access to the highway network
- Mitigating residual impacts
- Through demand management
- Through improvements to the local public transport network, and walking and cycling facilities
- Through minor physical improvements to existing roads
- Through the provision of new or expanded roads