Hello Transportation Planning Division Members!

Michael Hintz, AICP

The Transportation Planning Division (TPD) of APA facilitates the exchange of knowledge to efficiently move people and goods, shape urban form, enhance economic vitality, and improve quality of life. There are more than 130 TPD members in Washington State.

Washington Chapter members, and perhaps even TPD members, may be unfamiliar with all of what TPD membership offers and how its resources can benefit day-to-day planning activities.  Washington State TPD liaisons Michael Hintze, AICP and Patrick Lynch, AICP, are working to add value to planners’ work by leveraging the Washington TPD network to share knowledge about transportation topics of interest.  Michael and Patrick are working with the Chapter board to augment and strengthen access to TPD resources, and to invite others to join in the conversation.

At the January Washington APA board meeting, the Board and TPD identified three ways to enhance TPD’s relevance and usefulness to Washington planners:

  • Media, e.g., a new transportation column in the Washington Planner and establishing a Divisions page that includes transportation-focused issues on the Washington Chapter website
  • An enhanced conference presence within the Chapter (e.g., TPD “hosted” sessions, networking events), and
  • Initiating a quarterly Virtual Transportation Forum. This last idea would be a web-enabled forum (e.g., a Zoom meeting, … something you’re all very familiar with by now) where transportation planners could interact with one another on specific topics and have open discussions about challenges and strategies for meeting transportation needs at the local, regional, and state level.

The first of these Virtual Transportation Forums will be held in June -- please keep an eye out for details.  If you have any topics that you’d like discussed in the Forum, or have any other ideas for how TPD can add value to your work, please email Michael Hintze ([email protected]) and Patrick Lynch ([email protected]).

Return to the March/April issue of the Washington Planner