Douglas Chapman

I’m a Senior Transport Planning Consultant with AECOM, having joined in 2018 coming from local government. AECOM is a global multi-disciplinary consultancy and I am based in the Transport Planning Team in Leeds. Although I’ve only been with AECOM a short period of time I have been involved in projects that have focused on developing a business cases – i.e. why something should be built (covering strategic, economic, commercial, financial and management cases). I have been using transport models to use in developing a robust economic case (value for money) in addition to the strategic case (why the investment is needed) – utilising skills and knowledge gained at ITS.

I studied for my Masters whilst working full-time for a local authority. ITS was very useful in that many of the modules I undertook had strong synergies to the various work-streams I was undertaking at the time, enabling me to apply the latest academic situation to real-life examples, and use real-life examples within my studies. I strongly believe my experiences at ITS helped me secure my current employment with AECOM. The various events held by ITS for alumni and industry professionals throughout the year provide an opportunity to network, catch-up with fellow alumni and keep up-to-date with the latest developments in academia and the transport industry.

I choose ITS due to its excellent reputation and that many of my colleagues had degrees from ITS and highly recommended it. I choose the MSc in Transport Planning & Engineering as I had been working in the transport planning industry for a few years and wanted something that would provide an additional challenge and I felt the Engineering modules would do that and enhance my knowledge and experience.

Transport planning is a very rewarding industry and by being able to say I developed a policy or strategy, or I played a role in creating a highway intervention you can see the positive impact we have on people’s lives.

Studying at ITS was a great opportunity to learn from respected academics and industry professionals. The course is designed to be challenging, and studying part-time added additional challenges but with support from ITS, work colleagues and family and friends three years of hard work justified the end result.

I would strongly encourage anyone considering a career in transport to consider ITS, you will have the opportunity to learn from esteemed academics and with ITS relationships with industry professionals get real-life case-studies which support your studies and the principles learnt. For those who want to find out more do contact ITS and speak to/contact ITS alumni and ask any questions you have.

It is difficult to identify a single career highlight. To me the highlights are seeing policies, strategies and interventions I’ve been involved in being approved or constructed and knowing I have helped make a positive experience to people’s lives – whether it be transportation at a major event (Rugby World Cup 2015), provision of residential disabled parking spaces or speeding up bus journeys through bus lanes and other priority measures. I’m sure there’ll be more highlights to come.