---
title: "Thriving cities – making the political case"
url: "https://www.systra.com/uk/expert_insights/thriving-cities-making-the-political-case/"
type: expert_insights
date_published: 2023-03-24
date_modified: 2023-09-14
schema:
  @type: WebPage
language: en-GB
word_count: 511
reading_time: 3 min
canonical: "https://www.systra.com/uk/expert_insights/thriving-cities-making-the-political-case/"
featured_image: "https://www.systra.com/uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/11/2023/04/paramics-discovery-2-edited.jpg"
type-insight:
  - Creating Places That Thrive
---

# Thriving cities – making the political case

![Thriving cities – making the political case](https://www.systra.com/uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/11/2023/04/paramics-discovery-2-edited.jpg)

**The role of local authority officers and advisors is to help politicians make the case for transportation decisions. For best outcomes, it’s important to gain a deeper understanding of the priorities and perspectives they face.**

Politicians and transport planners have a lot in common. Both want to build
thriving cities that improve mobility and the lives of people. But while they
share these objectives, the priorities and the pressures they face are very
different. You can see this clearly in the ways they might present specific
plans – for example, for a low traffic neighbourhood, a road closure or a new
cycleway.

![healthy-routes-options-appraisal](https://www.systra.com/uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/11/2023/05/healthy-routes-options-appraisal.jpg)

![](https://www.systra.com/uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/11/2023/06/cycle-lane-on-oxford-road-manchester-with-counter_david-edgar-1024x695.jpg)

As SYSTRA has discovered, understanding this difference can have a significant
impact on the success of the entire project.

So what causes planners and politicians to apparently speak different languages?

Quite simply, while transport planners have a primary focus on the plan to the
exclusion of almost everything else, politicians have other considerations
ranging from special interest groups through to party political priorities and
manifesto commitments, all of which shape their approach. If they ignore or
oppose these in the short-term, they’re almost certain to face challenges.
Equally, if they take a longer-term view, the benefits are less guaranteed and
may be enjoyed by someone else further down the line.

To work effectively with political stakeholders requires transport planners to
develop a better and more sympathetic understanding of the pressures they’re
facing, and to become more adept at presenting plans in the light of them.

Speaking the language of political realities, and backing this up with evidence,
can make change happen. For example, eliminating a car park needn’t mean lost
revenue, it can be presented as an opportunity to repurpose the space for
activities that add value and potentially even higher returns. Similarly, the
voices of aspirant cyclists and walkers belong to voters just like the louder
voices of disgruntled drivers. We need to find ways to engage with these diverse
audiences and their voices to the table. Most of all, the message that
competitive capital investment is certain to be awarded in future to places that
are liberating themselves from the car, must be relayed ever more loudly.
Adopting a more ‘politically savvy’ approach can pay significant dividends.

Politicians ultimately want what transport planners want. They just need a
well-structured and thought through case, backed up with local evidence – since
it is they who have to stand up to public and peer scrutiny. For while it’s
perhaps true that few politicians are especially interested in transport, all of
them are interested in votes, and in voter welfare – and if we can help them
make the connection, we’ll be in a stronger place to deliver liveable
communities and economic growth.

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